New exhibitions opening tonight (Thursday 17th) at West Space.
Exhibition Dates 18th March - 16th April 2016.
Lucina Lane, Untitled (Snake), Acrylic on canvas, 2016, image credit: Christo Crocker.
loosen the earth Lucina Lane
Working within the expanded concept of painting and its material structure, Lucina Lane’s new body of work beckons the audience to experience the painting as an object, putting pressure on the frame of the work and its edges. Employing both slight and unruly painterly gestures upon unstretched canvas, Lane teases out how a painting can behave when it is no longer beholden to the pictorial frame.
Artist bio here: http://westspace.org.au/event/loosen-the-earth/
Line on display | Yona Lee
Using the architectural features of the Front Space gallery as a guide, Yona Lee’s new installation Line on display responds to the spatial dynamics of this particular gallery. Often seen as a transient space, Lee connects this experience with that of the psychological journey one takes when walking through a shopping mall or showroom. Utilizing merchandising display languages such as racks, hooks and prongs, Lee presents a number of manipulated slatwalls and anthropomorphic line sculptures – with found objects attached – she highlights our complex relationship with desire within the confines of commodity culture. Using steel structures that block or shift the viewer’s movements, Lee heightens the viewer’s bodily awareness in relationship to their surrounds.
Artist bio here: http://westspace.org.au/event/line-on-display/
Rebellious Fragments Sofi Basseghi
Sofi Basseghi employs documentary and video art practices to reveal an image of female Iranian rebellion. Her work observes the complexities and contradictions within the dichotomy of a misogynist and theocratic governed Iran. She is interested in the manner in which religious ideologies, superstitious belief systems and an ancient traditional culture impact the contemporary female Iranian identity.
Her work is often cognitive and visceral, informed by dialogues and exchanges between her own experiences as well as the experiences of women mostly from her own generation, women born during the Iran/Iraq war. She is particularly driven by the hidden and untold stories from these war babies who are products of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her work intends to alter misguided perceptions by unveiling the rebellious nature of Iranian women living in and emerging from an oppressive society. These narratives collected in social outings are interwoven with a collection of videos gathered during solitary outings capturing a multitude of perspectives expressed through the presence of majestic landscapes, urban cityscapes, the eerie crumbling of historical ruins and voyeuristic observations of women going about their everyday lives.
Through her practice, Basseghi aims to create a window for the exchange of dialogues between women’s lives in Iran and in Australia exhibiting both an ‘as is’ existence through documentary and a ‘perceived’ existence through narrative, dream and mythical folklore.
Artist bio here http://westspace.org.au/event/rebellious-fragments/
Economy | Schaeffer Lemalu, Patrick Lundberg, Campbell Patterson, Kate Smith and Meagan Wyke, curated by Serena Bentley
Economy brings together new and recent work by five artists based in Auckland and Melbourne. Included artists are Schaeffer Lemalu, Patrick Lundberg, Campbell Patterson, Kate Smith and Meagan Wyke. The exhibition includes abstract and semi-figurative paintings characterised by subtlety and sometimes humour. Economy also highlights the artists’ varied approaches to materiality, as evidenced in the application of paint or pigments to canvas (Smith, Wyke) and found materials (Lemalu/Lundberg/Patterson). Together, their practices intersect through a shared interest in the expanded possibilities of painting and in the creation of works defined by a certain economic incisiveness.
Artist bios here http://westspace.org.au/event/economy/
Patrick Lundberg, No title 1, 2014, incised found paint on board, 42 x 42 x 1.7cm Courtesy Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington
West Space, Level 1, 225 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Exhibition Opening Hours Tues - Sat 12 - 6pm