Current Exhibitions at NAS
The countdown is on to stage the
last exhibitions and events to be held at Newcastle Art Space in its current
location in Parry Street. With the
closure of the Newcastle Community Arts Centre and NAS due December 2016/Early 2017 period the last months are upon us and there is still a lot of art to experience.
Gallery 1
Taking the Arts by the Horns
Hannah Simonovich, Sarah Box,
Leslie Duffin, Patrick Mavety, Lauren Horwood, Ellie Kauffmann, Mark St Clair,
Maggie Hall, Sharon Cooper, Joerg Lehmann, Jordan Fardell, Louisa Magrics, John
Barnes, Neal Booth, Christina Frogley, Ahn Wells, Peter Lankas, Stephanie
Gobor, Chris Byrnes, Melissa Bull, Michelle Schmitzer, Nadia Aurisch, Nathan
Keogh, Aaron McGarry.
 |
| Lto R Details from works by John Barnes, Neal Booth, Melissa Bull, Chris Byrnes, Christina Frogley, Sharon Cooper, Leslie Duffin, Ellie Kauffmann |
This showcases the works of those
with connections to NAS particularly people actively involved with NAS over the
last eight months. The group includes exhibiting
artists at all stages of their careers, teachers, students, past prize winners
of NEAP, and the considerable number of volunteer workers all in one
space. The NAS gallery was originally started
by the tenants of the Newcastle Community Arts Centre as a venue to help artists
take further steps towards professional development.
It has offered a space to show work, the
opportunity to gain experience with administration, learn to understand artists’
contractual obligations with galleries, and provided a venue for other art
pursuits, community groups and art-related ventures. It has fostered links between the art and
business world both locally and wider. It has been a meeting place for the art
community as a whole. NAS continues to
do what it was set up to do with twenty-four artists displaying a diverse range
of work across most disciplines.
 |
| Lto R Details from works by Stephanie Gobor, Jordan Fardell, Nathan Keogh, Laura Horewood, Aaron McGarry, Peter Lankas, Maggie Hall, Louisa Margics |
L to R Details of works by Sarah Box, Nadia Aurisch, Michelle Schmitzer, Patrick Lavety,
Ahn Wells, Hannah Simonovich, Joerg Lehmann and Mark St. Clair, .
If you have not been to NAS or
not recently, come in and see the work, visit the space and the NCAC site and
bid farewell for now. I feel a little
sentimental and melancholy about the change of venue myself, but only
momentarily so, because it is clear there are brighter opportunities ahead for
the arts in Newcastle. We still cannot take the future for granted though and must continue to work towards a desirable new beginning.
Gallery 2
Aeon
Momo Hatley-Couper and Kali
Sunshine Barcala
Gallery 2 is alive with colour,
lights and with a dynamic and youthful energy. Both exhibiting artists are in the third year
of a Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle and hope to extend
their education in the coming year. Both
artists spoke of an interest and belief in the power of art as therapy and are
using creativity to show their experiences of living in a changing world, one with
wonder, passions and tribulations at the heart of humanity. Underneath the
colour and lights there lies a deeper consciousness and experiences that all is
not right with the world. The works are very much about hope and the beauty of our
world.
Momo Hatley-Couper
Momo, (so named by her parents from the
Japanese for little peach), Hatley-Couper, works confidently with ceramics and uses
them well as devices to talk about war or rather as anti-war statements. Her face masks “Grenade”
are impressed with a hand grenade resplendent in gold glaze along with wire
pieces woven through the mask. At first glance “Peacenik” looks like white earthenware vessels or large
platters. Closer inspection reveals a
grenade this time protruding from a representation of the female genitalia in the
centre of each vessel. In one work the
grenade has transformed itself into a bird – dove of peace perhaps, about to
take flight and be released from the centre. Regardless of the ugliness and
toxicity of such a topic, in Momo’s hands the materials retain a sense of the
beautiful which often presents a dichotomy in art as an artist approaches the ‘more difficult’ aspects of the world.
 |
| Images of some of Momo Hatley-Couper's work in Gallery 2 |
A large work reads as a figure of mother earth
or Mother Nature to me although another viewer might find another meaning. It
is called “Witch” and depicts a female form with tentacle-like branches
reaching out into the surrounding space, with the tentacles representing the
soul. Momo spoke of referencing her drawing style into the 3D works. A small series
of black and white photographs refer to the psychology of the artist. My favourite
was a small bronze work and its title tells its own story, “Ever since I was little I’ve had a mind full
of mountains and worries equally as big”.
Momo spoke about her continuing
search for enlightment being at the core of her life.
Contact Momo:
Phone: 0439251634 or instagram: momo.artist
Kali Sunshine Barcala
Kali Sunshine Barcala finds
making art a necessity and uses it as a search for understanding and uses personal
experience to create her work. Dreams,
people, phases of light and personal growth are all topics and impetus for her
making. Again, her ceramics are the
strongest and in her set of three torso and mask works “Mind Cast”, Kali uses her
own body for the ceramic casts that she referred to as self – portraits. They are painted with images from the plant
and animal life Kali clearly loves and are festooned with beautiful marks and
rich colours over the surface.
 |
| Images of some of the works by Kali Sunshine Barcala in Gallery 2 |
Two large
fantasy ceramic creatures span the divide between human, not quite human / amphibious,
not quite amphibious and are titled: “Keepers of the Deep”. These figures are covered with crystals and
lights. The female figure wears an
open-headed crown made up of pieces suggesting coral, sea creatures and the
underwater world. Kali spoke of her awareness
and concern for the current bleaching of Australia’s coral reefs and these
concerns are referenced within the work. Kali includes a series of works which suggest
connections to dreaming and includes images of family amongst self –portraits.
Contact Kali:
Phone: 0402597898
Social Media: Kali Sunshine Art
Email: kalisunshinebarcala@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment