Reviews on Inside Out Upside Down Gallery Site
Kilgour Art Prize, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle, NSW, Australia 6 November 2010
This art prize is one of the few in Australia that promotes the human figure as a central feature of art. The quality of the previous biannual exhibitions has been patchy, this one is also patchy,.... but... the overall quality of work is high compared to previous exhibitions. I enjoyed this exhibition much more than I have in recent years. The Kilgour this year has an exhibition of a wide range of figurative art approaches, some of which work, some half work and others flop despite the imaginative content. Stylistically the variety of work creates an interest of its own. The quality of the workmanship is very good, in spite of which I'm disinclined to admire some of the approaches to topic.
I don't have to agree with the Judges of the Prize because they have not yet awarded the prize, that happens tomorrow night. So I'll suggest Barry McCann's "The Not So Empty Room", Ben Smith's "The Influence", Salvatore Zofrea's "Psalm 106". A bit surprising from me but I would also add William MacKinnon's "Naata Nug.. (I'll apologise for not being able to read my own notes for the rest of the title)" this work engaged me despite its technical deficiencies.
Of the other works the ones I found interesting were Alice Wormald's "Incipience" largely because the image is so insipid, perhaps a parody of high surface finish and the Flemish method. Francis Celtlan's "Being and Knowing" which is in high key colour that separates it from the dark majority of works in the exhibition. Nicola Dickson's "Nouvelle Venus" is similar to the works she currently has at the St George Art Prize exhibition (see the review on this site), I found this one less effective but still engaging. Amber Carbury's "Laura" is either painted from a photo taken with flash or strong lighting, it rather reminded me of an Alma Tadema (which is no insult) in the brush work.
"Shanghai Rescue" annoyed me. It appears to be a print made onto canvas and then glazed over, followed by a dark glaze rubbed back. This is to say it has no drafting skill, minimal compositional skill, a single eye central view, an image size without purpose, minimal paint and brush control, almost zero colour and tonal management. How the heck this warrants a space on the wall is beyond me. Perhaps I just find Post Modernism a de-skilling bad joke.
As usual I'm reviewing a prize that I had an entry in. Unusually I don't mind not being hung, as the works in general are of better quality than my entry. Only the above image made me feel insulted. All up this is the best exhibition of current work I've seen this year, which is really encouraging as I've liked quite a few exhibitions this year.
author: Neil Miley