Une Fête dans le Papier, an exhibition by Penelope Benton and Alexandra Clapham

Showing all posts about Australian art

Une Fête dans le Papier, an exhibition by Penelope Benton and Alexandra Clapham

10 January 2011

Penelope Benton, a Sydney based photography, performance and installation artist, and Alexandra Clapham, combine to present a representation of a Versailles-inspired ballroom made entirely out of cardboard.

In this recent collaboration Benton and Clapham propose to marry royalty by birth and royalty by imagination, constructing a Versailles-inspired ballroom entirely out of cardboard such as is associated with the early life of Basquiat the street-artist/dreamer: Basquiat’s cardboard box for a bed, Marie Antoinette’s palace.

In this necessarily flimsy set the two will hold a dinner party, a feast of unimaginable scope, which will be in full view of the public (most likely consisting of starving artists and hangers-on) who will be invited to later riot over the leftovers of the important guests in a literal free-for-all.

The exhibition opens at The Paper Mill, 1 Angel Place, Ash Street, Sydney, on Tuesday, 11 January, 2011 at 6pm, and concludes on the following Saturday, 15 January.

Originally published Monday 10 January 2011, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

Ladies of the Letterform, an art show by Sofles, Lo-Fi Collective, Sydney

10 December 2010

Here’s your chance to see the work of Australian graffiti and street artist Sofles.

Sofles has burst from the anonymity of the graffiti world onto a public stage in a manner comparable to the explosive impact of his images rendered on canvas, brick, paper and human bodies. Witness blank space being filled with imagery from the over-running cup of his enigmatic mind.

Ladies of the Letterform is quite possibly Lo-Fi Collective’s last ever exhibition so make sure you don’t miss it. The show takes place at Lo-Fi Collective, Floor 3, 383 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, on Thursday, 16 December, 2010 at 6pm.

Update: I posted some photos from the show on my Flickr page.

Originally published Friday 10 December 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

Del Kathryn Barton wins Archibald Prize 2008

7 March 2008

Sydney based Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton has been named winner of the 2008 Archibald Prize, with a self-portrait featuring her children: You are what is most beautiful about me, a self-portrait with Kell and Arella.

Born in Sydney in 1972, Barton has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, where she taught for three years until 2003. She has had regular solo exhibitions since 2000 and has participated in national and international group shows including the Helen Lempiere Travelling Art Scholarship, the Blake Prize for Religious Art and the Sulman Prize. She was a finalist in the 2007 Dobell Prize for Drawing.

The Archibald Prize Exhibition opens to the public tomorrow, Friday 8 March 2008, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney.

Update: for those interested, the portrait measures 180 centimetres (cm) wide x 280 cm high, and as far as I can tell the work is a combination of illustration and painting.

Originally published Friday 7 March 2008.