2042: art on the street

I am so happy to let you guys know that a project I am working on is starting to ramp up. 2042: art on the street is a community artwork in Newtown where for one weekend (24-25 October) you will see the heart of Newtown turned into a giant 3-dimensional colouring book just waiting to be coloured by you and filled with your stories. Please visit the 2042 website for more information and I hope you will all join me on this adventure for the next couple of weeks. (I will also be cross-posting so you will be kept up to date on both blogs).

Sarah Scout Presents Andrea Tu

Check out images from Andrea Tu’s current exhibition at one of Melbourne’s newest galleries Sarah Scout Presents. Andrea Tu is graduate of Monash University and a recipient of both the Australia Council for the Visual Arts, Barcelona Studio Residency and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Studio Artist Residency. These beautiful folded sculptures play with the patterned 2D works also included in the exhibition and demonstrate an exciting technical skill that really caught my eye. Sarah Scout Presents is also a gallery to watch in the coming months.

Andrea Tu, Black Flux 2009, installation view at Sarah Scout, Melbourne care of artist and Sarah Scout Presents.

Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Take Your Time’ to come to Sydney

Olafur Eliasson, One-way colour tunnel, 2007 (digital rendering of interior view); site-specific sculpture to be made at SFMOMA on the occasion of Take your time: Olafur Eliasson; stainless steel, color-effect acrylic, and acrylic mirrors; 100 3/4 x 70 7/8 x 413 3/8 in.; Courtesy the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin; © 2007 Olafur Eliasson

This amazing retrospective of Olafur Eliasson’s work ‘Take Your Time’ is coming to Sydney in December. A massive coop for the MCA the exhibition has been shown at the MOMA, NY and MOMA, San Francisco and an unlike the many times I have seen his work as one stand alone installation some of his most inspiring works will now be shown alongside each other. Below is a video that they showed at the media preview last night.

http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/15

Only in his 40’s Eliasson has created some my favourite public works including the waterfalls he installed in NY last year through the New York Public Art Fund. This is possibly the MCA’s biggest and most expensive exhibition to date and I am personally so excited that an installation of this quality is coming to Sydney. The exhibition is set to include some of his maquettes and models which should be an amazing insight in the way his team of 30-35 staff members work.

Take Your Time, MCA Sydney

10 December 2009 – 11 April 2010

James Angus wins WA’s most expensive public art commission

Images (pdfs of proposal submission to situate prize 2009 by James Angus)

situate an international sculpture prize in Perth, Western Australia announced yesterday that James Angus’ proposal has won a $1 million public art commission. To be located in Perth’s CBD – it is the largest ever public art project in WA and will be produced by some of Australia’s great public art and engineering talents. Although the principal artist and designer is James Angus, Douglas Knox (Principal Engineer), Peter Mclean (Lighting Engineer), Sebastian Adams, (Industrial Designer), Tony Oxley (from Oxley9 Gallery and Angus’ representing gallery and project coordinator) and Jaime Marina, (Fabrication) will help the project to come to fruition and hopefully produce an artwork that the public really enjoy. Both a state and local council venture it is a glimmer of hope that often expendable public art funding is still available and open to new techniques and ideas. Check out the finalists online as the project has attracted some great proposals and concepts well beyond the typical promenade style city art.

Bravo’s latest reality show based on the art world

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The New York Times is reporting that hundreds of people (across the US) turned up a to a series of casting calls for a reality TV show based on contemporary artists for BRAVO and to be produced by Sarah Jessica Parker. Of the hopefuls that turned up 13 finalists will be announced and one artist will win “a gallery show, a cash prize and a sponsored national museum tour”. It is a little surprising to note that representation by a high level gallery is not part of the prize, although no specifics have been confirmed. This could be similar to the response the technical and skill based reality shows such as Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance received where industry people were extremely skeptical until a few season in. The prizes therefore often increased once the show had proved itself and become reputable. It will be great to see how the contestants will be tested and surely that in itself will create some interesting TV.

COFA Spring Fair stalls up for grabs

This event is usually on a beautiful spring day with a friendly atmosphere and is a lot less sweaty than the COFA Annual. To be held this year on the 19th of September the COFA Spring Fair Art and Design Markets provide huge exposure for COFA’s artists and designers. Stall priority is given to current students and then graduates. Stall holders take 100% of profits with a $25.oo stall fee, however with 5000 people visiting each year this does not seem much compared to possible profit. Contact the COFA Marketing Department for more info.

Free contemporary art e-cards

In the middle of winter we all need a little bit of colour. Artbank has provided this service for a while but these FREE e-cards might be just the ticket to give someone or a group of friends a little colour in their inbox (beyond the usual spam and videos of Kittens falling asleep). The quality is a hell of a lot better than some poorly designed singing ones and promotes the work of whatever artist you pick. The choices are pretty varied and are changed over every couple of months.Current artists include David Griggs, Petrina Hicks and Lucy Culliton.

Resale Royalty debate continues to drag on

Image SMH: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri in front of his artwork Warlugulong, quoted in the article as an example of an indigenous artist who could have benefited from the Resale Royalty scheme. This work sold for $1200 in 1977 and then in 2007 for $2.4 million.

Louise Schwartzkoff reported in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald on Peter Garrett’s response to the Resale Royalties Bill Inquiry. Mr. Garrett has recommended (amongst other things) that the 5% royalty that would be given to artists with each sale of their work would not be placed on works that are currently owned by the collector and then sold, only on the second time around, “A retrospective scheme would be unfair to current artwork owners who bought works without knowing that a royalty would be payable on resale,” said Mr Garrett.

However the art market is a fairly slow one and artworks are kept in families or collections often for decades. Therefore this was would not effect many older artists and particularly older indigenous artists whose works has steeply increased in value in recent years. However in the long-term this is great for younger artists who will make some money off the sale of their artworks as works gain value as they are sold and re-sold over time. The Bill has yet to go to the House of Representatives so we will not know for quite a while to full ramifications of decisions being made.

Between Site & Space at Artspace

Installation view of Paramodel, pilot plan — p class architect office — , Artspace, Sydney, 2009


Installation view of Paramodel, Paramodelic CC [Car/Construction] Parking Space P.CC.P., Artspace, Sydney, 2009

Between Site & Space
This exhibition is a great example of the great work that comes from many collaborations between artists and architects, as well as the joy that comes from a free flowing dialogue and open mind. The use of small cars, animals and other unusual materials make for a very youthful but still engaging exhibition. Currently showing until the 18 April 2009.

With artists EXONEMO, ALEX GAWRONSKI, PARAMODEL, GAIL PRIEST, TIM SILVER, HIRAKU SUZUKI the exhibition is a culmination of a collaboration between Tokyo Wonder Site and Artspace and curators Reuben Keehan and Hisako Hara.

There will also be a conference held at the end of the exhibition on the 17-18 of April, entitled
SPACES OF ART. Where a discussion on institutional / post-institutional curatorial and related practices in contemporary art will take place. See artspace.org.au for more info.

Renew Newcastle launches with Marcus Westbury’s help

Renew Newcastle launches this weekend with an event at Renew Newcastle HQ, 3 Morgan St Newcastle this saturday 21st of February at 11AM. Marcus Westbury will then lead a tour of the first of hopefully many projects taking place in and around Newcastle’s Hunter Street Mall with Lost At E Minor, Gallery Raw, Emerald Arts and Loop Space some of the arts groups involved.