Yet another gallery has pooped up on our radar in Glebe!

Hidden in the corner of that weird-little-arcade-square-thing (map) on Glebe Point Road is Gallery Red. We are so ashamed that we didn’t know this gallery was here. We saw them on Facebook, and decided we MUST check out more HeadOn Photo Festival action. So Friday night, braving the cold, we found ourselves in a gorgeous little gallery checking out some seriously impressive photography.

Shutter Speed featured the work of 7 of the Gallery’s artists, Rowena Clarke, Anthony Cummins, Rachael Ireland, Andy Powell, Stephanie Simcox, Matthew Syres and Juliet Taylor.

The exhibition was diverse and more a showcase of the photographic talent represented by the gallery than a cohesive group show. However, that’s not to say the we didn’t love the show – we did! The exhibition continues until the 22nd of May so venture in and have a peek.

Read other stuff:

• Upcoming events at the HeadOn Photo Festival.
• Gallery Red website.

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

The Chrown Collective were in the spotlight last week at The TATE with their group show Lusydity. The 11 artists involved drew inspiration from the subconscious and altered states of mind. Each artist worked in their own medium and style to bring together an exhibition that was eclectic and surreal. It featured a little of everything from photography to sculpture.

The TATE was pretty quiet when we arrived, but no doubt picked up as the night wore on. Once again the TATE provided a group of emerging artists the chance to début their work in a professional space. Although if you blinked you will have missed the show, there is a new exhibition opening every Wednesday night at The TATE so get along and check out something fressssshhhh!

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

Welcome to a glorious month of photography! It’s Head On Photo Festival time and galleries across Sydney are embracing photographers with open arms. There are some amazing things on, and we decided it would be a good excuse to check out some galleries we haven’t visited before.

Artereal is a beautiful gallery space in Rozelle. We’ve driven past a million times, and peered through the glass on our way to Paper Plane a few times. So tonight Artereal gets our love, along with 2 artists who happen to be launching their exhibitions.

Liam Benson is a local performance artist. His collection Motherland featured a series of video works and enormous photographic portraits of himself in character. He explores themes of monarchy, matriarchs, masculinity and cultural identity.

Not part of the Head On festival, but still worthy of mention was Danny Ford’s video and installation work Values Neutral Street Justice. The psychedelic looping video features images and captions from the artist. To get a grasp of the motivation behind his work it worth reading up here.

Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to have a look at Rebecca Beardmore’s new works (also part of Head On), which were hidden away in the Stockroom. Being new to the gallery we didn’t know where to look, and couldn’t see any pointers suggesting it was OK to wander out the back. Sorry Rebecca! We know for next time.

The exhibitions continue until the 2nd of June 2012.

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

We love finding new galleries to check out and put on our radar. So it was with delight that we headed along to check out Newsagency Gallery, a little space on Stanmore Road that seems to throw on a show now and then. It’s a mysterious place,  run sporadically as a side project to the owners’ creative consultancy business. There are no room sheets, the booze is BYO and the party runs till everyone decides to leave. Attending this particular opening was like crashing a house party at that the home of that trendy arty friend that we all have!

Chas Glover was the artist in the spotlight. His show featured a back catalogue of works from various shows. Glover has had over 100 exhibitions and so it seems he decided to make some space in his studio by filling the gallery, floor to ceiling, and pricing everything at $200. Bargain.

His works are mostly expressive portraiture. Glover dabbles in surrealism and the macarbe. It seems his earlier works were particularly dark, featuring themes of satanism, S&M and violence. On the other hand, the remaining works from his more recent collection were bright portraits of motorbike riders, races and landscapes.

Sadly the exhibition has now finished (appologies for the delay in posting). However with and artist as prolific as Glover I’m sure he’ll pop up again soon. In the meantime keep an ear out for the next show at Newsagency Gallery.

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

Hyper Reality Dimension XX opened at aMBUSH last week. It has been a while since we made our way out to Waterloo, so a new show that promised a chance to reminisce about 80s pop-culture was the perfect excuse.

The group show featured works from Jodee Knowles, Chris Yee, Rebecca Murphy, HOUL, KID9, OX, Bafcat, Claire Orrell, Sam Octigan, Lizzie Nagy, Gerald Leung, Luke Marcatili, BOB, Iconica, Ala Paredes, Bryn Desmond-Jones, Jonathan Verzosa, Sam Hoh, Jacob Rolfe, and Jin Hien Lau.

Participating artists drew inspiration from 80s and early 90s cult film heroes and cartoon icons like The Ninja Turtles, Heman, Gumby, and Ghostbusters just to name a few. We have no doubt that a lot of the artists weren’t old enough to remeber the 80s, but that’s okay. Our minds almost exploded at being reminded of 90s gems like Toxic Crusaders; lyrics of theme songs jumped out from dusty corners of distant memories. Widget, anyone? It was amusing to see so many people wandering through the gallery in a nostalgic haze.

According to aMBUSH, there will be an online catalogue accessible until April 30th, where you can check out all the works and buy something if you are so inclined. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it on aMBUSH’s website, so maybe keep checking their page or give them a call if you’re interested.

Also check out Chris Yee’s coverage of the exhibition.

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

Weeks fly by, and with an opening every Wednesday night since their launch, we’ve missed a lot at the TATE already! But we’re back, this time to check out Girls, Girls, Girls. As the name implies this is an exhibition featuring girls: not as the subject, but as the artists. These talented ladies were Georgia Hill, Jacqueline Bui, Leena Leuanvilayvong, Elle Irwin, Lyndsay Noyes, Georgia Norton Lodge, Yida Jiang, Nina Gibbes, Kirthana Selvaraj, Ania Gareeva, Jessica Tjandra, Cjay, Lauren Sultana and Liz Macnaught.

We’re not entirely sure what the connection  (if any) is between the artists, or who curated the show but it was hugely diverse across mediums and themes. Although it was fairly disjointed as a collection, the works still came together to form an exhibition that was fun and bright and gave a lot of artists their first taste of the gallery spotlight (downlight!).

The space was packed by about 15min after doors opened, which goes to show that there is a crowd at this end of town that is thrilled as we are to have this little gallery.

The show runs until this Sunday 15th April. Get along and check it out.

*Didn’t get all the artists names, so if we’ve missed you in the captions please let us know and we’ll update! xo

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

April White’s exhibition Undertones opened at Salerno Gallery last week. The show features a collection of works both old and new exploring the artist’s inner workings. The highly emotive and surreal self portraits were created with a mix of expressive pencil lines, paints and collage.

There was a freedom in many of the works that was wonderful. There was a  sense of White’s hand being connected directly to her mind and scrawling these images with disregard for learnt practice, instead creating raw images of the way she imagines herself. We think these were the most successful pieces in the show.

As usual, the gallery was packed to the gills with a wine-sipping crowd hanging out the front. The exhibition finished yesterday, so we’re sorry to say that you’ve missed it. Check out April’s website and the details for the next opening at Salerno Gallery this Thursday.

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

Art Month always seems to fly past and this year has been no exception. We haven’t made it to many “official” events this year, so with the end in sight we decided to get along to see the many art exhibitions that collectively formed the Chippendale Precinct Party (and apparently Redfern, but we didn’t have our walkin’ boots on). There were too many galleries to see in the 2 hours so we prioritised a few new spaces we hadn’t visited, and one we haven’t visited in a very long time.

First stop was UTS Gallery. We weren’t sure what to expect, and after getting lost in the gorgeous design faculty, we finally found it. The UTS gallery is a beautiful big space: well lit, minimalist and professional. The exhibition on this cloudy evening was The Baker’s Dozen – a group show from a collection of like-minded artists that explored abstraction, illusion and aesthetic (see the room sheet for background).  The colour and energy in the exhibition was intoxicating.

Stop number two was DNA Projects with an exhibition titled Shadowplay. Jumaadi, Jason Wing and Ruark Lewis explored traditional and contemporary shadow puppet imagery and objects through puppetry, drawing and photography. The exhibition was haunting and mysterious . Although we were enthusiastic to see it, we had to give run away before the performance piece began as the rain started coming down. With no umbrella we decided to run across to our next stop.

NG Gallery. Long time no see. We really love this place. The upstairs galley is always warm and inviting and always has something phenomenal on show. This particular evening it was Here Today Gone Tomorrow, Life’s Fragile Nature, a group exhibition featuring both local and international artists working with paper. The exhibition was truly amazing, the room sheet went so far as to claim this was an exhibition of “paper geniuses” and in a lot of cases we wholeheartedly agree. We’ll never look at paper as such a humble medium again.

Finally the clock struck 8pm and the galleries began to close, so off we go to the after hours Audi Art Bar at White Rabbit Gallery. On seeing the line of punters trying to get in running down the street we realised that there would be no art appreciation happening here. But who are we to turn up our noses at complimentary wine and a packed room of hipsters? Bring it on. Great way to finish a great night. Looking forward to next year’s Art Month!

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

It’s no secret that we loved Lo-Fi, and when it handed the reigns to The Standard we were a little sad. BUT (!) Lo-Fi Collective has a new baby – The TATE. Located upstairs at the Toxteth Hotel on Glebe Point Road, this little gallery is destined for great things.

The grand opening was last Wednesday night and group show There Goes the Neighbourhood adorned the walls. The exhibition featured 16 artists across a range of genres. A great collection of familiar names with a few new ones as well.

The idea behind the TATE is to provide a free exhibition space to art school students, outside of the institution. Such a fantastic idea. We really want to urge everyone to get along and support the TATE, because they are supporting art. Gallery fees and commissions in Sydney can be dizzyingly high, so to see such a professional set up that’s prepared to back new artists for no fee and no commission is just incredible. We’ll be excited to see which bright young things get launched at the TATE.

And yes, it was packed.

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.

This year Project5 is turning 4. If you’re new to Project 5, here’s a nutshell explanation: 4 artists are provided a massive panel each and put out in public to entertain the masses with their arty skills by painting said panel. The finished works are then auctioned for the charity Information and Cultural Exchange (I.C.E).

This year includes a touch of nostalgia, with an exhibition and print series available covering the last 3 years of Project5 (exhibition continues until 25 March 2012). We speak from eyewitness experience when we say that some of the previous works have been amazing. See for yourself Project 5 Volume 3 and Project 5 Volume 2 that we covered. So, with that in mind we headed along to check out this year’s live painting event.

The artists this year are Vexta, Reka, E.L.K and HAHA – all young Australian street artists out to get some exposure and donate their time and talent to a good cause. Aactually, come to think of it we have no idea if they get paid…?

The air in the Rocks Courtyard was thick with the smell of aerosol paint and the sounds of  Future Classic DJs. We arrived late in the evening when things were winding down. The vibe was chilled which seemed perfect for a Friday evening. This little back alley location probably wasn’t the best move PR wise. Not much walk by traffic at all, unlike the Cockle Bay Wharf location of last year! Hopefully the PR machine has worked in the papers and TV to get a bigger crowd along to the auction this week.

The artworks were coming along nicely when we visited, but with another 2 days of work ahead of them, the artists were suitably relaxed.  If you’re thinking about getting your wallet out for the auction this Thursday (22 March 2012) you can see the completed artworks on the Project 5 website.

STROBED - A place to see a few photos and a few words about Sydney art exhibitions when you can't get there yourself. Or when you want to see photos of yourself on the internet.