BARBARA VAN OOST | Vazen

13 February-7 March 2016
Ceramic Vessels

All pieces are made from raku clays and
stonewares and finished with stains and slips

Barbara van Oost was born in The Netherlands and moved to Melbourne in 1997.She is a self-taught ceramicist and began exploring the medium while working as a contempory dancer in her native Holland.

Her handbuilt ceramics are void of hash angles and excessive surface decoration. Barbara’s organically formed works are created using mixed clay bodies, oxides and stained slips and fired to stoneware temperatures.

Alongside her sculptural practice she designs and creates a line of jewellery and womenswear under the label Klei.

NGAIO LENZ paintings | until 2 September

We are pleased to announce that Bird’s Gallery will have the lovely Ngaio Lenz for the month of August in our Featured Artist Programme.

Ngaio is a Melbourne based artist, recently relocated from Queensland, working in abstracts and installation. Her EQUILIBRIUM series is an exploration of the organic shapes of the natural environment. They are the shapes and surfaces Ngaio is drawn to in a world of harsh sharp edges and cold interiors. These works are a balance to the fast pace of modern life and a way of feeling connected to nature and the gentle softness of a weathered surface.

MIN SIMANKEVICIUS | Fractured

Photo: Detail of VAN GOGH PARK | 177 x 150 cm

On July 9-30 we are pleased to present an exhibition by photopainter Min Simankevicius. ‘FRACTURED’ is a carefully curated selection of his ongoing studies of natural and urban landscapes via the media of photography and digital manipulation.

Artist’s statement:

In looking at landscapes I have always admired the way the drama of the ever-‐changing landscape
evolves over time -‐ with the shifting of light, the effect of wind, the viewing of different points of
perspective. I am not content to capture one frozen moment alone but am driven to find a way of
expressing the shift of time and place in that one image (without resorting to video or moving records).
Photography is generally lauded with the honour of a single “click” and what is captured in that brief
moment, yet seeing the work of David Hockney and his photo-‐collages opened a whole new arena of
capturing a landscape for me.
My images are a combination of many photos, taken from slightly varying angles and of course, across a
short period of time. The combination of these many impressions create a juxtaposition of parts that
make a whole, yet show the parts in various aspects of viewing. Clouds drift, tree limbs move, the cliche
is no longer.
These images are far from collages, as they are not assembled from varied images, but assembled from
aspects of the same image.

Photo: Detail of TREE OF LIFE | 90 x 90 cm

Photo: Detail of GALAXY | 90 x 90 cm

Photo: Detail of FIG TREE | 100 x 100 cm

NADIA DUSSELBERG | ceramics

Currently at Bird’s Gallery we are featuring beautiful ceramic vessels by Nadia Dusselberg. She is a Melbourne based contemporary ceramics artist with a background in the film industry.

Nadia grew up in a creative environment as a daughter of two ceramicists and with a little encouragement began her own explorations in clay in their long established art space, Studio 32. It wasn’t long before she began developing stylistically and her own identity emerged.

Inspired by nature, Nadia’s work has a fresh quirky take on the typically mundane. She sees practical objects and makes them fun. It’s within this joyful spirit that Nadia playfully names all her works after familiar childhood memories.

GILLIE & MARC | Featured Works

Gillie & Marc | Featured Works | 22 June – 8 July

For the period of three weeks we are featuring wonderful anthropomorphic sculptures from Australian artists Gillie and Marc. As husband and wife, they collaborate to create art as one, applying the iconic imagery of the dog/human hybrid to celebrate the powerful spiritual relationship that exists between man and animal. Gillie and Marc reference their own remarkable love story in their works, perpetuating a pursuit of happiness and encouraging us to challenge the status quo and the perceived safety of societal convention. 20 years ago the artists married in the foothills of Nepal’s Mt Everest, 15 days after having met in Hong Kong. They now live in Sydney with their 2 children and golden retriever Moby. With a 15 year history of collaboration, Gillie and Marc’s works have received acclaim worldwide and are held in collections both nationally and internationally.

Philosophy 15.10.2015
Techniques 15.10.2015
Statement 15.10.2015

Lolly Dogman & Rabbitgirl
Clear resin | 35 x 28 x 20 cm | 45 x 26 x 17 cm
Price $480 each

He Read on the internet that six cups a day is okay
Just not seven
Bronze | edition 15 | 30 x 29 x 41 cm
Price $2500

They Thought Together No Wave Was Too Big
Bronze | ed 20 | 38 x 26 x 40 cm | Price $2800

“He Wondered If She Remembered Their
Romantic Nights Together | Bronze
Edition 20 | 14 x 12 x 21 cm | Price $980

VAIDAS ZVIRBLIS | Featured Works

VAIDAS ZVIRBLIS | Featured Works | 10 June – 8 July

Aussie Land | oil & mixed media on canvas | 182 x 122 cm

This exhibition features a selection of Vaidas Zvirblis’ paintings and small sculpture, a glimpse into his extraordinary world of colour and weird creatures. Vaidas is a Melbourne based Lithuanian artist working in a range of media, regularly exhibiting locally and overseas. Full bio here

Here is his recent interview with DPI magazine for their Winter issue:

Q1: Would you share something about yourself with us? Like your education background, your homeland, your career, or anything you want to say.
A1: I received my art training in Kaunas (second most populous city in Lithuania ). My parents noticed my tendering in that direction from in early age. When my father asked me whether I wanted to be an artist, I answered that I did. when I had completed grade 4, father handed me some pencils and enrolled me in an entrance examination for a children`s art school . I was accepted and so began my career in art . After completing the art school I unrolled in the Kaunas Art Academy (Vilnius Art Academy) in Lithuania. In 1998 I with my family moved to Australia, since then I am based in Melbourne, but come back to Lithuania often for various projects.

Girl and Her Cats | oil and mixed media on canvas | 102 x 76cm

Q2: How did you describe your art style?
A2: I would describe my style as primitive/naive with an effort to distance myself from given art streams. I make an effort negate the influences I was exposed to at the art academy.

Q3: What material, techniques, or tools do you use for creating?
A3: I work in variety of materials. I feel free to improvise my own techniques and supplements. I like using recycled materials, like timber, empty cans/ bottles, straw, variety of my own rendering mixtures made out of sand, clay, oxides and oil paints. I use those in my paintings as well as in my sculptures. In my illustrations, on the contrary, I choose fine ink pens, pencils and watercolor. I never use computer to enhance my drawings. I like the old fashion way of drawing.

Brown Dog | mixed media | 31 x 25 cm

Q4: What influenced your art the most?
A4: I am most strongly influenced by primitive /tribal art –the kind of art created before man had a notion of “the artist”. I am inspired by the beauty of aboriginal art as well the old Lithuanian folk wood carvings.

Q5: Your painting works hold strong personal style. How do you develop the way you paint now?
A5: I enjoy larger formats which allow scope for free flowing brush strokes. Initially I am driven mainly by colour, mood and texture from which more specific images emerge.

Q6: Besides painting, your sculpture work is impressive, too. The characters are so lovely. How do you start to create sculpture? What do you want to show in the creatures you designed?
A6: I think of my sculptures as 3D paintings, colour and texture being of more importance to me than form .The imagery which keeps surfacing is basic, simple: naïve creatures unable to survive in the buzz of the modern world, and find a life other than in painting or sculpture.

Sitting Rabbit | mixed media | 36 x 22cm

Q7: Besides painting, do you have any hobbies? As a freelance artist, how do you balance work and life?
A7: Otherwise I enjoy spending a lot of time in the countryside. For about 7 months I’m with my family in Melbourne where I’m an hour’s drive away from fishing in the ocean or walks in the forest. I spend other time of the year in Lithuania. It is my way of avoiding the cold and wet of an Australian winter.

Q8: What do you want to achieve this year?
A8: I would like to resume my work as an illustrator. In Lithuania I am friends with writer Vytautas Landsbergis with whom I have successfully published a number of children’s books . One of these earnt a prize as the most beautifully illustrated book of that year (Briedis Eugenijus 2007 Kronta). I am open for all opportunities for new projects to illustrate.

JOSEPH WEIDENBAUM | New Relics

JOSEPH WEIDENBAUM | New Relics | 23 May-6 June

Exhibition Opening Saturday 23 May 2-4 pm
Please join us for a glass of wine!

The work is a series of sculptures /masks composed from vintage metal petrol funnels adorned with a variety of materials. Alongside these sit some larger 2 dimensional works also constructed from found materials.

As an artist, who is also a collector of vintage and historical objects, stemming from my own family’s history, I came across a small selection of vintage petrol funnels. I was struck by the form and primitive figurative shapes also by what they represented historically as used objects with their embedded memories.
As a 3rd generation holocaust descendant the themes in my work are often around transformation of the historical. What interests me is the objects and materials and the meaning they hold juxtaposed with what it could be now and in the future.
My father came to Australia when he was 17 as a refugee from war torn Europe upon the infamous ship The Dunera and then had to transform or recreate his world. In a sense, these are the themes that emerge somehow in all of my work.
I began the journey of seeking and collecting these petrol funnels with great fervour. Their conical shape was somehow suggestive of a camera lens, a periscope poking up and into the world and capturing and inhaling global situations. There was also a playful and definite human aspect to them that I was drawn to and the possibilities to create varying characters from these seemingly innate objects.
The process of transforming these forms into masks happened spontaneously in the studio and as I created one, the need to add more, almost like a family then became my purpose. Tribal masks are one of the first forms of Art as projections and expression of people and spirit created by ancient cultures. Subsequently these artefacts became the driving influence of the Cubists in the early 20th century who I admire and draw influences from as well.

As I created the masks something else happened. They became characters with their own unique traits and personalities. I began to see them as my quirky left of field friends part of a tribe with their own fictitious story’s to discover and unpack .

During the process I also asked friends to reflect on personality traits they saw and was amazed at the endless possibilities from different perspectives and viewpoints.

The themes in this sense are conscious and unconscious and much of the synthesis or understanding takes place after the creation as I am an artist that starts with materials and works intuitively. Somehow though the themes in my heritage, my culture and history return eternally. War Zones, refugees, the displaced, the old world meeting the new and how one forges their own identity combining these different aspects are some of the themes I grapple with here.

CLAY IN MOTION 1-21 May

CLAY IN MOTION | KEEPING THE BALANCE | group exhibition of ceramic works
Exhibition Opening Friday 1 May 6-8 pm. Join us for a glass of wine!

This is a biannual exhibition of Studio 32 artists. The Studio is run by multi-award winning sculptors Ingrid & Klaus Dusselberg.
‘KEEPING THE BALANCE’ has been this year’s theme and many meaningful interpretations can be seen in this show. Most artists are using clay for their work, however, there are some amazing mixed media pieces.

Participating Artists: Anna Dixon, Anne Anderson, Ruth Oliver, Doreen Blankfield, Geula Kohn, Lynne Bechervaise, Ingrid & Klaus Dusselberg, Jenny Rankin, Kylie Castan, Suzi Jotwani, Sue McSheffery, Mandy Toniolo, Marian Bosch, Maree Broad, Monica Gehrt, Thomas McIver, Alexandra Obarzanek, Yinghong Li

View exhibition Opening images

Jenny Rankin

Sue Mcsheffery

Ingrid Dusselberg

Klaus Dusselberg

Suzi Jotwani

Marian Bosch

Lynne Bechervaise

Monika Gehrt

Mandy Toniolo

Ruth Oliver

Jenny Rankin

SELVA VEERIAH | 11-29 April

SELVA VEERIAH | Be As You Are
Recent paintings | 11-29 April 2015

Melbourne lawyer-turned-artist Selva Veeriah creates intuitively inspired soft abstract paintings.

Born in 1968, Selva was raised in Malaysia. As a teenager, he was passionate about studying fine arts and becoming a full-time painter. However, a certain life-changing event redirected him onto an entirely different path.

He was admitted as a barrister in the United Kingdom and practised in Malaysia for many years before emigrating to Australia in 2005. After almost two decades of working in different countries, he ultimately followed his heart and gave up his legal career to return to his first love.

Selva is mainly a self-taught painter. He is inspired by the philosophy that a quiet mind is the key to unalloyed happiness, and believes the simplest way to achieve this is to just ‘be’ yourself and allow life to unfold naturally.

His approach to creativity mirrors his perspective on life. He explains, “In making art, my role is simply to hold a brush to the canvas; creativity charts its own course. I start with a blank canvas and go with the flow, but truly the painting takes a life of its own. The colours and brushstrokes are chosen intuitively, without any preplanning or preconceptions about how the final painting might look. Inspired ideas bloom and take shape, as all necessary components come together one layer at a time. The hues, values, and composition are continually adjusted until the painting reaches a certain dynamic balance and feels complete.”

The outcomes of this intuitive process are paintings that embrace a mix of styles, but for the most part, lean towards organic shapes and earth tones that resemble naturalism. Selva’s artworks are colourful, decorative, and showcase a mix of detailed patterns with undertones of gestural abstraction. Some of his pieces are playful and charming.

More images & info

View Exhibition Opening images

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Feature in Booroondara Progress Leader 21.04.2015

CALLY LOTZ | 14-28 February

CALLY LOTZ | Simply There
14-28 February 2015

Exhibition Opening Saturday 14 February 2-4 pm
Join us for a glass of wine or soft drink!

Cally Lotz is a contemporary still life painter. She received a BVA (hons) from the University of South Africa, and has participated in over 20 group shows and 2 solo shows in South Africa, Germany, India and Australia. She has lived in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and is currently residing in Melbourne, Australia. Lotz was awarded a year’s residency at St Vincent’s where she is currently practising her art.

Her paintings are mostly oil on canvas and her signature work consists of contemporary still life that focuses on objects which are not urbane, packaged products for sale, but objects for focused consideration and meditation.

Artist Statement

My paintings are meditative – both as process and as product. The concept of meditation is to slow things down, and that is my aim; to slow down the viewer’s eye, to share the experience that everyday objects become transfigured when looked at closely. The emphasis in this exhibition is not on the physicality of the objects themselves – there is no conscious intention of implying deeper symbolic meaning, but more of cultivating an awareness of the enigma that things exist. The visual world has always had a hypnotic effect on me, so it is only natural that an atmospheric kind of realism has eventually become my language of expression. An appreciation of the sustained power of observation is my mantra

PAINTINGS

cloth
Cloth on a Box | oil on canvas | $390