The Finkelstein Files in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Arts and entertainment

The Finkelstein Files

Locality: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 404 861 438

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25.01.2022 Dreamweaving with Fibre artist Tammy Kanat: Not knowing the end of the story keeps me curious and motivated. I like the mystery and journey of creating each unique piece. Weaving is a slow process and cannot be rushed. The focus is not intense, yet it is meditative and free. The works evolve, so I need to be in a relaxed head space to have clarity and connect with where to go next with the artwork. Beginning with asymmetrical ovals and amorphous shapes, Kanat loops, twists,... and weaves her sizeable wall hangings. Using a steel frame, she hangs up the copper forms that provide the structure for her abstract tapestries. She then combines natural materials like wool, linen, and silk to create small tufts and organic rows of varying hues that add a range of densities and textures to each piece. Halfway between artisanal work, in the most literal sense, and art, the textile work has sought to rediscover near-forgotten techniques and methods of work that were close to disappearing. This new creative impulse has managed to reinvigorate the value of products such as carpets, rugs and blankets that are no longer being manufactured using the traditional artisanal methods of hand-weaving and looms. For me weaving projects a mood. I follow my instinct to create designs that feel balanced. I am very visual, always taking note of my surroundings and believe this is reflected in my work, explains Kanat. Back in the studio, the floors are covered with all different shades of wool; the walls are lined with a multitude of experiments. The textural effect of layering yarn invites the viewer to take a meditative moment, pondering how the patterns develop. Kanat’s monumental sculptures caught the eye of the National Gallery of Victoria who added four artworks to their collection recently. Gaining international recognition through social media for her vibrant uplifting work, Kanat has since produced commissions for local and international clients. She believes weaving is an ever evolving and timeless art for and an enchanting way to share the impact of her surroundings. Image: Tammy Kanat, 2021, work in progress #tammykanat #fibreart #geometricart

22.01.2022 Celebrated Australian photographer Petrina Hicks presented her first major survey exhibition with Bleached Gothic, a book and exhibition including over 40 photo and video works captured over her 15-year career since 2003. Shown @ngvmelbourne in 2019, Hicks lived up to her reputation for enigmatic and multi-layered images, the surreal compositions were seen together for the first time, each diverse in their conveyance of the inherent ambiguity and complexity of the female ex...perience. In her contemporary art practice, Hicks draws on the aesthetics and techniques developed during her previous career as a commercial photographer, recreating the shimmering allure of advertising and portraiture in her impeccably pristine images. Present across many of Hicks’ works is the tension between seduction and danger, familiarity and strangeness, intimacy and distance. Women, girls, and animals are recurring subjects, portraying inspiration from mythology and art history. Hicks has established a reputation for very deliberate, arresting images that play with the shape of time. They are sparse images, where all extraneous detail has been deleted as you are forced to witness a disturbing encounter with something that is frequently ethereal, uncanny and mercilessly uncompromising. There is a subdued eroticism in many of the photographs, but one that does not invite voyeurism or male sexual gratification. Petrina Hicks utilises the seductive and glossy language of commercial photography to create artworks that probe at the false promise of perfection, exploring photography’s ability to both create and corrupt the process of seduction and consumption. Image: Petrina Hicks Fertile, 2010, pigment print 90 x 90 cm, edition of 8 + 1AP *NGV Interviews Hicks via BIO link #petrinahicks #sydneycontemporary #bleachedgothic #michaelreidsydney #thisisnofantasy

21.01.2022 Penny Byrne is a contemporary artist based in Melbourne. Her practice is grounded in the repurposing of found objects, deploying materials such as antique porcelain figurines, vintage and contemporary toys, bronze and glass to create small and large scale sculptural works which are engaging, irreverent and often disarmingly humorous. Byrne’s practice interrogates social, political and humanitarian issues. Her commentary has examined current affairs such as the incarceration o...f inmates at Guantanamo Bay, the war on terror, narcotics trafficking and inter-continental political alliances. Her recent practice has turned its attention to large-scale protests and political activism around the world that address matters of fundamental human rights. An undergraduate law degree and subsequent post-graduate career in ceramics conservation underpins Byrne’s highly articulate and politically driven practice. A blend of intellectual and intuitive thinking results in her unique capacity to challenge the boundaries and assumptions of contemporary art practice. Penny Byrne has developed more than 15 solo exhibitions since 2006 and has been selected for numerous curated exhibitions. In 2015, her work was exhibited in the Venice Biennale exhibition Glasstress Gotika at Palazzo Franchetti on the Grand Canal. Image: Love in a Time of Corona, 2020 cast bronze, patina 110 x 50 x 60 cm unique state, A/P 1 of 2, Georgia Quinn. #pennybyrne #sydneycontemporary #michaelreidsydney #gallerysmith #artistlife #isolife #abstract #art #contemporaryart #studiolife #creative #australianartist #lockdown #coronaera #artlovers #studio #investinart #artcollector #igers #supportlocal #talent #artconsultant #instapc #artistsoninstagram #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

20.01.2022 Sculptor Barbara Campbell-Allen OAM likens the flames in a woodfire kiln to a river. The licks of the flame ebbing and flowing between periods of rapid and calm as they torrent their way through the firebox to freedom, metamorphising the clay in their path and scarring its surface with ash and flame. The rich conceptual grounding of Barbara’s hand-built forms owes itself to her time spent as a geomorphologist. At an elemental level, the chemical makeup of clay and its subsequ...ent transfiguration into stone through the ceramic process is a fitting metaphor for the landforms Barbara seeks to capture. Her recent series Dune was a response to two contradictory landforms found in Central Australia: the erosion of gorges cracking open the earth’s surface ever so slowly; and the ephemerality of sand dunes in a constant state of making and unmaking at the whim of the wind. [The work] becomes a memory of moments and time it has an emotional component to it, says Barbara. It is a journey through the landscape. The forms reflect the grandeur of an overwhelming landscape, [they] enable the reflection of climate, storms, change of season or experience of drought and floods. Coil building allows her to gain more control over the form, adding blade-like angles or gauging through the clay to dissect the form’s surface. The fire adds yet another layer to the story of Barbara’s forms. The natural ash glaze produced by the Black Wattle, Pine or Eucalypt wood fed through the kiln’s stoke holes gives each piece a surface and texture reminiscent of the earth’s skin. The dryness of a drought-stricken creek bed, the granulated surface of windswept sedimentary rocks, or the jewel-like runoff of water pooling at the foot of a gorge after the first rain of the season. Each individual work speaks of a different time and moment in nature. Alone or in a series, Barbara’s forms punctuate the space around them. They are a beautiful reincarnation of a landscape as vast and raw as it is beautiful. #BarbaraCampbellAllen #ceramicist #sculpture #rochfortgallery #sydney #exhibition

20.01.2022 Still-life painting sometimes gets a bad rap as being a bit old fashioned or passe, in the context of contemporary art. I don’t necessarily think that, but I’m always interested to hear what it is that draws your eye to the genre and your subject matter. Art is about the relationship you have with your world and my world is here, so there will be naturally that domestic aspect. It isn’t about a corner of the house, it is purely about the objecct to it, but my interest in... still-life isn’t that domestic scene. It isn’t about a corner of the house, it is purely about the object and the objects are things that llike. I like to paint objects which have served us, not on a sentimental level but objects which have acquired a human quality over time. I’ve always wondered what it is about the singular nature in my work often my works have that very singular central thing which is potentially a very boring composition, but it is like an offering in a sense. - John Honeywill 2020 Sulman Prize finalist, John Honeywill is an artist of observation. His still-life paintings render his observations of quiet moments of everyday, domestic objects. The paintings observe the presence and stillness of the object in a moment in time. Removed from their context, the subject matter of Honeywill’s hyper-realistic paintings is not driven by telling a narrative but, rather, by capturing the intrigue that first caught his eye. Image: John Honeywill Balancing Sorts, 2020 Oil on Linen 56 x 56cm #johnhoneywill #hyperrealsim #stilllife #form #commission #australian #artist #drawingfromlife #oilpainting #igers #supportlocal #talent #artlovers #artcollector #thefinkelsteinfiles

20.01.2022 I’ll say it here; loud and proud. Yep, my first art crush was Mr.Squiggle. c.1974 for vintage ABC’ers out there. Norman Hetherington, cartoonist and puppeteer, was the brainchild creator who brought this marionette-style pencil-nosed character to life for Australia children from 1959 which aired for an incredible 40 years. ... Mr. Squiggle, was a marionette with a pencil for a nose, who visits his friends from his home at 93 Crater Crescent on the Moon, flying to Earth in his pet rocket (named Rocket). In every episode he would create several pictures from ‘squiggles’ sent in by children from around the country. Mr. Squiggle is a cheery, gentle and good-natured yet scatter-brained character who is often distracted and occasionally goes for ‘space-walks’, leading his assistant to calm him down and get him to focus on the task of drawing. Who could forget ‘Miss Jane, Miss Jane my@rocket ship is here - I must go immediately !’ as she assuredly held his hand until he was safely inside Rocket ready to leave. Other characters that appeared in the show included: Blackboard, the grumpy blackboard that Mr. Squiggle uses for an easel, whose catchphrases are "Hurry up", "Hmmph", "Double hmmph" and "Booorrriing". Gus the Snail, who had a TV for a shell and later, a flower pot, often told knock-knock jokes. Bill the Steam Shovel, who likes to tell corny jokes and belch steam (talcum powder ?! ) out of his "nose" when he laughs. #mr.squiggle #ABC #television #imagination #creativity #improvisation #art #engaging #nostalgia @ Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

20.01.2022 I am sure I am not alone in saying this will be the first year I am viewing graduate exhibitions through a virtual prism. Although many artists, galleries, museums and institutions are sharing students’ folios online, I cannot wonder what may be lost in translation. Certainly digital festivals celebrating diverse work of rising creative talent is called for currently. But in a Covid-era, what can be seen and felt intuitively in situ rather reflected back from our devices sc...reens? #rmitgrad #vcaart #creative #studio #graduate #exhibitions #digital #experience #immersive #seemore #artlovers #igers #artcollectors #supportlocal #talent #antipodeanart #thefinkelsteinfiles

18.01.2022 @emilyfloyd0 ‘s OPEN SPACE! has now joined Harry Seidler’s icon of mid century architecture, Australia Square, which from its completion in 1967 until 1976 was the tallest building in Sydney. The work responds to the Modernist logic of the tallest building, making an alternative declaration of leaving public space open or unfilled... a fertile void. A family of letter forms spell the word OPEN, this disc is part of a six-meter centrepiece P in the colours of purple an...d green. Emily gratefully acknowledges Monash Art Projects lead architects Helen Walter and Andre Bonnice for their amazing support; Robert Hook for his total precision, Anna Schwartz Gallery and Amanda Sharrad for guiding us through. The project team acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the land. OPEN SPACE! is commissioned by TOGA (TFE), has been produced with Monash Art Projects and curated by Amanda Sharrad as part of A by Adina Sydney designed by Johnson Pilton Walker Architects. #emilyfloyd #artist #sculptor #annaschwartzgallery #asg #mappublicart #amandasharrad #helen__walter #andrebonnice #roberthook #yukihooki #bellcollison #tfehotels #cityofsydney #artlovers #artcollectors #seemore #supportlocal #talent #igers #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

17.01.2022 Massive snaps to superstar @vipooart for this prestigious award ; ‘It is a great honor and humble to be awarded The 2021 Ceramic Artist of the Year by the editorial staff of Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated magazine (USA). I am earnestly grateful for the recognition I have received for my work. Especially from the international organisation that has been inspiring me since my time in University.... The annual Ceramic Artist of the Year award is presented to an artist whose work reflects current aesthetics and sets an example for ceramic artists by embracing current trends, technology, studio, marketing, and/or community-focused practices. Over the course of your career, you’ve been very active with exhibitions, winning numerous awards, public art projects, teaching, mentoring, and community outreach. In addition, you have helped to support and engage with the global clay community through innovative social media fundraising campaigns, among other projects. The fact that you can consistently create work as a self-employed artist in addition to having a busy schedule is impressive. In short due to all of your personal creative achievements, as well as your dedication to the field, we feel that you are more than deserving of the Ceramic Artist of the Year award. - Jessica Knapp Editor, Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Associate Editor, Pottery Making Illustrated, at The American Ceramic Society Congratulations Vipoo - so well-deserved !!

16.01.2022 Up close and personal with the warp and weft of the tenth Embassy Tapestry: ‘The Royal Harvest’ designed by Kaantju/Umpila artist Naomi Hobson for the Australian Embassy to Indonesia in Jakarta. This tapestry is being woven by ATW master weavers Pamela Joyce, Sue Batten, Tim Gresham & Jennifer Sharpe. Naomi Hobson is a visual artist who resides on the banks of the riverbeds her grandparents were born, in Coen, Far-North Queensland. Her colourful abstract compositions act as a... link between individuality and a shared identity. Her continual inspiration is the vast traditional lands of her ancestors surrounding the town of Coen, and her culture. ‘The Royal Harvest’ will take up to 6 months to complete before it is installed on long term loan at the Australian Embassy to Indonesia in Jakarta. ‘The Royal Harvest’ tapestry has been generously funded by members of the Myer family to honour Arnold Hancock OBE, former Chairman of the ATW. Image: Naomi Hobson, The Royal Harvest, 2020. Wool and cotton, 2.05 x 2.8m. Woven by Pamela Joyce, Sue Batten, Tim Gresham & Jennifer Sharpe @marieluises @naomi_hobson_artist #tapestry #austapestry #australiantapestry #australiantapestryworkshop #austapestryworkshop #loom #colour #form #weaving #weaver #handwoven #handweave #naomihobson #contemporaryart #artist #vivenandersongallery #naidoc

16.01.2022 Sasha Grishin’s recent blog - link in BIO - talks to the newly opened NGA’s blockbuster exhibition.... Dr Deborah Hart, Head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), tells the amusing story that when she was making a pitch to the gallery management to stage a major exhibition of Australian women's art, she projected a slide with the portraits of numerous women artists. The director asked, does everyone know their names? So was born the idea to stage a maj...or exhibition of Australian women's art simply called 'Know my name'. Know my name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now is a vast exhibition with over 400 works by more than 170 Australian women artists working from 1900 through to the present. It is being staged in two parts - the first from Friday 13 November 2020 to 4 July 2021 and the second part opens in late July 2021. Having and exhibition based on gender is invariably problematic and historically artists like Margaret Preston and Georgia O'Keeffe were well known for refusing to exhibit in 'she-gender' exhibitions. Critics of gender segregated exhibitions speak of a 'ghetto mentality' and will argue that good art will always rise to the top and does not need any special nurturing conditions. A similar case has been argued concerning Indigenous art - that it should simply be seen as Australian art and will shine through its own brilliance. Image: Yvette Coppersmith, Nude self portrait, after Rah Fizelle (2016). Private collection. Courtesy National Gallery of Australia. #KnowMyName #SashaGrishin #NGA #WomeninMuseums #WomeninArt #KnowMyArt #KnowHerName #seemore #contemporary #antipodeanart #thefinkelsteinfiles

15.01.2022 Paul Yore’s exhibition ‘PATRIOT’, brings his particular Australian brand of camp, anti-establishment and irreverent art making to @michaelreidberlin. Yore’s intensely layered, textile forms comprise an assemblage of text and imagery that aim to mirror and critique society and lived experience. The artist’s painstakingly manual production techniques via quilting, applique, needlepoint and embroidery, express a form of ambiguous storytelling. ... Born 1987 in Melbourne, Australia, where he is currently based, Yore uses these various approaches to invite the viewer to piece together narratives within his subversive and flamboyant patchwork creations. Beyond the glittering surfaces and wild palette, Yore’s motivation for making this new series of work for this second solo exhibition at Michael Reid Berlin is, as the artist explains, to deal broadly with the slipperiness of language, the limitations imposed by borders and boundaries, the weight of competing historical narratives and the prevailing cultural climate that feels at once foreboding and yet full of potentiality. Curated by Rachael Vance, ‘PATRIOT’ is showing at @michaelreidberlin from 20 November to 19 December 2020. @ Michael Reid Berlin. #PaulYore #storyteller #soloexhibition #contemporaryart #textile #talent #MichaelReidBerlin #supportlocal #artlover #artcollector #seemore #antipodeanart #thefinkelsteinfiles @ Michael Reid Berlin

15.01.2022 Join Lisa Roet with Craft Victoria as she discusses her work in context with biodiversity projects and research into human-animal communication. Audiences can tune in on Thursday October 8, 6pm via zoom with an opportunity for audience questions at the end of the conversation. Book your spot via the link in bio or at craft.org.au/craftcontemporary... 'Eloquence: The work of Lisa Roet' is part of Craft Contemporary running 1 October - 7 November. The exhibition celebrates this significant artist and her exploration of the interconnectedness between human and non-human primates. In a career which blends art and science, Roet’s practice has taken her from Melbourne to the forests of Borneo, the skyscrapers of contemporary Beijing and research centres around the world. Craft Contemporary is a new festival exploring how craft is evolving in the 21st century across objects, jewellery, furniture, fashion and contemporary art. Craft Contemporary is supported by @cityofmelbourne Image: Lisa Roet, Chimpanzee hands 2006 and Primate fingers 2006 as exhibited in Aping, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne 2008. #lisaroet #craft #contempraryart #craftvictoria #cityofmelbourne #connect #interaction #artist #talk #artpractice #supportlocal #talent #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

13.01.2022 To describe Mark Howson’s work as graphic art would be to miss the point of his masterly use of brush and paint to create solid shapes in colours with texture and nuance. Howson paints what he sees around him - trees, dams, sheds, mountains. While there is a nod towards the art of the mid 20th century, Mark’s works are beautifully synthesised versions of the landscape around him that have a sense of playful novelty about them. He lives and works on a small farm near Kyneton,... Victoria, and his work is informed by the surrounding landscape. Howson’s work is highly regarded for it’s meditative, cubist style, which developed from vigourous expressionism into avant-garde abstraction. Popular representations include simple, textural forms in carefully balanced, bright compositions Born in Staffordshire, England in 1961, Howson arrived Australia in 1969. He was a founding member of Roar Studios - one of Melbourne's earliest (fiercest) artist-run-initiatives which opened in Fitzroy in 1982. Image: Mark Howson Road to the Black Hills, 2020 oil on linen, 107 x 92 cm #markhowsen #contemporaryart #mcontemporary #artistlife #isolife #abstract #art #contemporaryart #studiolife #creative #australianartist #interiorgoals #artlovers #studio #investinart #artcollector #igers #supportlocal #talent #artconsultant #instapc #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

13.01.2022 I don’t think there is a Leonard whose work I didn’t admire in one way or another! A talented roll-call includes Leonard Cohen, Leonardo Di Caprio, Leonard Bernstein, Lennie Kravitz, Leonard (Winston) Churchill, Leonard Nimoy, Leonard Hamersfeld...you get the gist! And now Leonard Joel will sell an incredible Leonard French work. From a working class background in Brunswick, Melbourne's inner-north west, French rose to become one of Australia's most unique and memorable artis...ts. In the 1970s, renowned architect Michael Dysart commissioned Leonard French to produce a monumental stained glass feature at the home of business entrepreneur, Gordon Barton, in Sydney's beautiful Vaucluse. Much in the vein of the iconic windows at the National Gallery of Victoria, the windows were built at an impressive 8 metres by 2 metres in total spanning the height of the staircase between the first and second floors. The property, known as Loch Maree, has safeguarded these windows since their incarnation and are now being exclusively offered for private sale through Leonard Joel - via Olivia Poloni. Most notably, French was responsible for the stained glass windows at the Great Hall at the National Gallery of Victoria, unveiled in 1968 and his first attempt at this medium. In the late 1960s Leonard French wasone of the most highly priced artists in the country, and by 1970 was at his peak. In his tribute to French NGV director Tony Elwood said, During the 1960s and 1970s French was one of Australia’s most prominent artists and developed a unique modernist style through which he expressed a deep humanism and spirituality. #LeonardFrench #australian #artist #modernist #glassart #artlovers #artcollectors #seemore #humanist #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

13.01.2022 Born in 1965, Anne-Marie May lives and works in Melbourne. She uses diverse materials to undertake explorations of colour, abstraction and space. May has exhibited since the late 1980s, and was a member of the influential artist-run space Store 5 in Melbourne. Selected solo exhibitions have been held at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004; Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, 2004; and Murray White Room, Melbourne, 2009, 2011 and 2013. Her work was included in21st Centu...ry Modern: 2006Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, andLess is More: Minimal and Post-Minimal Artin Australia at Heide in 2012. Images: Anne-Marie May, installation view, InsideOut: Space and Process Erwin Fabian &Anne-Marie May, McClelland Sculptureand Gallery, 2020 @ChristianCapurro #insideoutspaceandprocess #annemariemay #australiansculpture #contemporaryart #pgacgalleries #mcclellandsculptureparkandgallery #vicgalleriesfromhome #Australianpublicgalleries

12.01.2022 The @uptownartexhibition transforms the top of Bourke Street, Melbourne into a 24/7 outdoor art gallery. @louise_paramor's installation 'High Society', is part of the experience which is displayed in the windows of the old Society restaurant at 23 Bourke Street. Head to the city and check out her series of ten sculptures made from constructed honeycomb paper and found objective. On until late February.... #louiseparamor #sculpture #finkelsteingallery #uptownart #uptownartexhibition #installation #melbourneart #seemore #igers #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

12.01.2022 This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. - Torri Morrison It is easy to see how desperate we are for the emotional, intellectual and creative comfort that all the arts bring to our lives. Efforts to reach out to one another are filling up our feeds for months. Italians have serenaded one another from th...eir balconies. Choreographers from across the globe have collaborated on a virtual dance composition. Professional musicians are live-streaming free concerts in their living rooms, visual artists offer their works for sale via virtual exhibitions. If the arts are taken for granted, perhaps this is a time for us to realise that it is through the arts that we can experience our humanity, the good as well as the bad, and to know that no matter the immensity being faced, artists will be there, in whatever medium they express themselves in, to make us laugh, weep, and perhaps most important, make us think about what it is to be human. #seemore #connection #innovation #artistlife #isolife #abstract #art #contemporaryart #studiolife #creative #melbourne #australianartist #wallart #lockdown #interiorgoals #artlovers #studio #investinart #artcollector #igers #supportlocal #talent #artconsultant #instapc #artistsoninstagram #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

11.01.2022 Kate Elsey’s most recent collection of works Basslines, explores the fundamental tension between between fragility and resilience through entropic forces, acknowledging the natural poetry that drives us onwards, quietly connecting all living things. What I see and feel in nature’s realm is that I am completely connected by the same system of survival. My work is about love and is bold in colour and form never a wallflower or a trend. My work is an exclamation of the myste...ry and majesty of this planet. And in retrospect painting these homages I see a humanness. - Kate Elsey 2020 It is the line of naturean invisible rhythmtransmitted through endless networks that move in the background of our being, affording us life through its silent capillaries. Though we may not always see it or feel it, we are in perpetual connection to its basslines. Elseys paintings are rich with texture, colour, form and meaning. Drawing from abstract expression’s era of bold forms and colour, referencing the landscape and its intricate components, Elsey creates a repressed expression of ever changing light and life, holding static a biome and feeling its presence as if to ‘catch the tail’ of each moment forever. Successfully entwining material and conceptual practice, there is a sense of energy imbued in her works by her practice. The lively works are cleverly stilled by Elsey’s strong conceptual practice. Her practice involves a certain empathy with survival of life including her own. She is interested in why we are here, what matters and the miraculous wild life she encounters, making homages or haiku of life as she sees it. Her work is bold and confident, giving the viewer much to ponder and enjoy while also exposing the fragility of the environment. If you weren’t able to catch the exhibition last month online, head to @eastgategallery to view available works. #kateelseyart #studio #life #melbourne #life #eastgategallery #igers #contemporary #abstract #landscape #painting

11.01.2022 Life is an ever evolving process or it can also be termed as continuous change. Life nowadays is advanced and modernised so art holds a very significant role. It stimulates the society by translating the experiences through space and time. It influences the opinion of people through visual inspiration. Art is involved in affecting the essential self-sense. Art does not demonstrate for people what they should do. It reforms by projecting a blend of imagination and reality tha...t influences the way people think and live. It can make people feel the world. The feeling art creates may spur thinking, engagement, and even action. It can work as a medium of motivation. Art has the power to move people and offer new experiences. Be it painting, drama, song, poem, novel, a spatio temporal experiment or any sculpture, art may motivate people to think about life positively or differently. Art can offer a way of understanding the meaning of life and how beauty and pleasure could be parts of existence. It combines imaginary world with reality and reveals how an artist is see people and places. It motivates people to attribute new meaning to life and existence. As a consequence the individual become aware of a feeling that he may not have focused on before. Art presents reality in a way that may change the vision and perspective of audience towards the world. Art works as catalyst that sifts facts from assumptions and blends these with imagination. It can encourage people to turn their thoughts and imagination according to the meaning they bring to a piece of art. Art can also inspires us to appreciate instinct, improbability, and imagination and to pursuit continually for new notions; artists aim to breakdown the rules and discover ways of contemporary issues. Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny." #seemore #connect #expression #imagination #inspiration #manifestation #appreciation #resilience #melbourne #isolife #thoughts #perspective #thefinkelsteinfiles

07.01.2022 This image by artist Eva Fernandez encapsulates much of what it means to be Australian for me. To take a leaf out of gallerist Marita Smith’s history, wattle too symbolises so much for me. It is one of my first sensory memories of climbing my favourite wattle tree in my childhood backyard. Thanks Marita - my family came here in 1841 on the Clonmel which was shipwrecked off Port Augusta. My great-great-great-great grandfather Michael Cashmore survived, with his fathers’ fob-...watch intact, his health and motivation to start a life in Melbourne. He was the 1st Jewish settler in Melbourne, Australia, opening a haberdashery business in Melbourne’s 1st brick building, ‘Cashmore’s Corner, at 1 Elizabeth Street. Founding and presiding over the city’s 1st Jewish Congregational Society, the ‘minyamin’- quorum of mens daily prayer groups were held in the back store room of his store. Whatever your story is, let’s keep sharing them in the hope that we are all each other’s stories by way of the way our lives are intertwined and inform each other. Whether it’s this day, or every day of the year, let’s be express gratitude for where we live together in unity caretaking our adopted country harmoniously. Thanks to Marita Smith for sharing your story; My forebears came here on the convict ship Friendship which arrived in Port Jackson on this day in 1788. We brought but reminders of our lives from elsewhere and built a new existence in imposed exile. We are proud of our heritage, but we acknowledge the devastation and dislocation caused by our actions. We live on land that was nurtured by its original custodians and which belongs, and will always belong to them. We are hopeful of a future where the wrongs of the past are redressed more fully and where opportunities and life expectancy are equal for all. We love this country, its land, it’s flora and fauna. But mostly, we love it’s diversity of people from here and from elsewhere. We celebrate not the arrival of the first fleet, but the country on which we all live together as Australians. #homeiswhererheheartis #celebratediversity #alwayswasalwayswillbe

06.01.2022 Camie Lyons palpable skill for capturing energy, whether physically making marks on a surface, or melding and contorting bronze into organic flowing shapes, is what has come to embody her oeuvre. A primary preoccupation for Lyons has been to capture dance, to trace the lines made while moving, which she has been doing successfully for many years in what she refers to as ‘solid drawings in space’. All these elements - quietly fierce and boldly delicate in their execution - fil...l the viewer with a feeling like pirouetting on the inside. Lyons strikes a visual balance and beauty in the constant cycle that is memory, perception and daily life, evoking sinew, limbs, and bone in her light touch and knowing gesture. Her works are sensitive and enduring, a form of organic linear abstraction that strikes a chord. The sculptures can be shifted around a room, placed at different angles, lit to create drama; this makes them quite versatile and surprising. - Camie Lyons. Sculpture is often seen as being on the periphery of the arts, but in terms of the level of celebration of this medium, we rarely see sculptors, and in particular female sculptors, rise to stardom in the Australian and International art scene the way Lyons has. #camielyons #catstreetgallery #scottliveseygallery #contemporary #art #scultpture #artistlife #isolife #abstract #art #contemporaryart #studiolife #creative #australianartist #wallart #lockdown #interiorgoals #artlovers #studio #investinart #artcollector #igers #supportlocal #talent #artconsultant #instapc #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

05.01.2022 The power that art has to move, shape and impact our lives is indelible. Artist Asher Bilu elaborates: In 2013 My work Insights into Ultimates was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. The best response I have ever received to any of my work came from class 4/6S at Merrylands Public School Sydney, a class of 16 students with mild intellectual disabilities and special needs. The inspirational Sally Jackson, a special education teacher, had taken her students... on excursion from Merrylands, a low socioeconomic area, to the Museum of Contemporary Art, in itself an unusual outing for such young and underprivileged children. She wrote to tell me of the impact just one of your artworks has had on one little group of kids and their teacher. They had two favourite artworks - one was a life-size statue of Spiderman - and the other was your work - Insights into the Ultimate, which they fondly remember as "The box of sticks. Later I received a letter enclosing original thank you letters from the kids themselves. I was so moved I arranged to visit the school on my next visit to Sydney. That visit will always remain as a highlight in my life. They studied my website, downloaded images of some of my other works and constructed a board featuring paintings and words relevant to my work. Then they set about making their own artwork, inspired by what they had learned at first called a box of sticks because it was constructed of sticks found in the school yard and painted blue, later titled Frozen in Time when it was exhibited at the school art exhibition. The excitement in the classroom was palpable, the students were delightful, respectful, interested and eager to listen and ask questions, well after the allotted time for our visit. They queued patiently for the signing of a catalogue and posed proudly for the group photograph. Later in the mail I received their individual thank you letters. Unforgettable. Image 1: Asher Bilu On the Edge of the Unknown 1, Blue Eclipse, 1996 60 2019, resin, pigments & felt on board, 183 x 183 cm. #asherbilu #eastgatejarman #contemporaryart #creativity #education #communication #connection #appreciation

05.01.2022 In Aquacurl Power Station, Henry Jock Walker has stitched wetsuit material into abstractions that memorialise time spent in the ocean. The neoprene surfaces carry the weathering of their former use with a method that brings together pattern making and painting. In the studio you can see it: mounds of used wetsuits like discarded skins, collected by Walker in parallel with his mobile performance practice. The fabric is organised according to colour and texture, a kind of proc...ess integrated into a studio engagement. The wetsuit seams are used as linework that interrupts the flat colour as a fragmented drawing. The works are getting more complex, balancing between an exploration of composition and pop cultural reflection. The shifting textural qualities have a softly sculptural presentation encased by the painted frames. Walker maintains a connection to his action surf painting (made in the ocean in a very different way), but this exhibition offers a counterpoint through its labour intensive ethic. The piecework sewing might be a contrast to his action painting but the free poetry of Walker’s titles takes us there steamer, new entry or even metallic skin equals Time Travel via superluminal speed. The intense colours hold onto an earlier era of surfing, the nostalgia bleached by the sun. Henry Jock Walker’s was a recent finalist in The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize and his work was presented as part of Sydney Contemporary 2019. This year he launched his film Little Penguin Cup which documents his collaboration with artist Nampei Akaki (Japan) and the interactive work Kintsugi Supermarket. Image: Henry Jock Walker, Invoice Header Migration Opening Ceremony, Aquacurl Power Station, 2020, Stretched found neoprene with painted timber frame, 100 x 80cm #HenryJock #abstraction #art #composition #pop #exhibition #igers #egganddart #thirroul #contemporary #supportlocal #talent #seemore #thefinkelsteinfiles #antipodeanart

04.01.2022 Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now showcases art made by women. It brings together more than 300 works, drawn from the Gallery’s collection and other collections from across Australia. This exhibition is part of a series of ongoing initiatives by the National Gallery to increase the representation of artists who identify as women in its artistic program. Featuring lesser-known and leading artists such as Margaret Preston, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Destiny Deacon ...and Julie Rrap, this exhibition tells a new story of Australian art. Highlights include a floor-to-ceiling presentation of artists’ portraits in a variety of mediums, the work of pioneering performance artists Bonita Ely and Jill Orr and a complete edition of Tracey Moffatt’s first major series of photographs, Something more 1989. By bringing together artists from different times, places and cultures, this exhibition proposes another history, upending the assumption that modern and contemporary Australian art is a male-dominated narrative DI$COUNT UNIVER$E's Spring 2019 collection 'WOMEN', shown at New York Fashion Week in late 2018, will feature in Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, opening 14 November. Grounded in gender politics, the collection speaks with a feminist voice that offers an uncompromising view of 21st century womanhood. Image: DI$COUNT UNIVER$E, 'A promiscuous woman' woven label gown, 2018, and 'I am not sorry, I am not for sale, I am not for reproduction' embellished slip, 2018, National Gallery of Australia, Gift of the artists 2020 #KnowMyName #5WomenArtists #MuseumFromHome #NationalGalleryAus #BowDown #DiscountUniverse

03.01.2022 A new bronze work by Melbourne based sculptor, Caleb Shea manages to elicit a smile and a sigh of appreciation. Sculpture is, & always will be, my true jam. His sculptures definitely have their roots in avant-garde art of 20th century - from the emblematic & technological abstractions of Russian Constructivism, Shea’s reveals a trajectory for formalist abstraction. Line and form are central ‘objects of obsession and attraction’ for Shea, and his stand-alone sculptures can be ...read through their material & formal qualities. Made of different materials of steel, wood and stone - and with different surface treatments - painted and burnt, matt and shiny - Shea’s works share a repertoire of forms. His sculptures are three legged, and many are built from stainless steel climbing from a base, with the centre of gravity determining their final shape. Animated by this delicate balance, they appear just short of toppling over, and this energy strengthens the figurative associations. The works are grounded, yet push up into space, the largest to a not-quite-human height, so despite their totemic shapes they never become monuments. A cross intersecting with a rectangular rod is the basis of several smaller, compressed works with blunt, cut-off ends. Like pieces of Lego they invite linkage or extension, as part of a larger set, and indeed Shea imagines the totality of his oeuvre as an ever-growing accumulation and evolution of forms developed through repetition and variation. The rhythmic interrelationship within and between the sculptures is crucial, with a delicate balancing act between the preservation of a strictly formal, abstract tradition & the introduction of theatrical or relational qualities. Shea describes this dynamic as a ‘collision of different directions’, or ‘a collision of possibilities’. #calebshea #avantgarde #minimalism #abstraction #constructivism #3d #sculpture #form #artcollector #igers #artlovers #supportlocal #talent #curated #australianart #seemore #antipodeanart #thefinkelsteinfiles

02.01.2022 From ancient Roman ruins, Bauhaus and the Memphis Group, to space design, fashion and film, Sean Meilak absorbs his vast array of influences with a deeply contemplative approach. His work is inspired by Sean’s ongoing interest in architectural and geometric forms, ruins, and design. ‘I am very much interested in blurring the boundaries between still life, set design and mise-en-scene in cinema, while examining artifice the artefact and the cultural constructs of display,’ d...etails the VCA-trained artist. Meilak’s work delves into furniture design, exploring the way objects are displayed in stores and museums and how this, in turn, dictates so much of the viewing experience. The installations include architectural and geometric plaster sculptures, installed on a buffet style plinth, a wall unit-cum-room divider, and a table completely covered in a textured render. ‘pieces echoing architectural elements, ancient ruins, and postmodern pastiche,’ teases Sean. The multidisciplinary artist has worked in many mediums over the years including painting, drawing, video, and installation. Most recently, he has placed greater emphasis on sculpture and installation. ‘I became drawn to this after working on a series of still life paintings, based on small sets and assemblages created in the studio,’ explains the 42-year-old. ‘I started making my own geometric and architectural forms out of plaster to add to the sets, and gradually they evolved into artworks in their own right.’ Images: Sean Meilak, Made for Melodrama, 2021, Mixed Media, acrylic paint, plywood, mdf, polystyrene, steel, pva and liquid nails. #seanmeilak #soloexhibition #scale #niagaragalleries #tone #installation #design #architectural #form #contemporary #interior #postmodern #igers #seemore #melbourne #artlovers #artcollectors #australianartist #thefinkelsteinfiles @ Niagara Galleries

01.01.2022 Have you toured the Lyonhousemuseum in Melbourne’s leafy Kew? The Housemuseum is the story of a partnership between collector and architect Corbett Lyon and his wife, Yueji Lyon, who began shaping their collection of Australian contemporary art over twenty six years ago. Established with the intention of making works available for public viewing, and for research and education, the Housemuseum is a unique combination of private residence and private museum where 'museum' an...d 'living' are brought together in a single building. Today the Collection holds over 350 works from over 50 artists, representing one of the strongest collections of Australian contemporary art in the country. Following selected artists over the course of their evolving practices, the Collection includes works by internationally recognised Australian artists such as Brook Andrew, Howard Arkley, Patricia Piccinini, Callum Morton, Shaun Gladwell, Daniel von Sturmer and Daniel Crooks and represents many of the key moments and important shifts in Australian artistic practice and thinking. Pictured is Yueji Lyon talking with the tour group about the experience of developing a collection and living amidst it. #YuejiLyon #corbettlyon #lyonhousemuseum #kew #collector #art #collection #housemuseum #aspirational