Every time I visit one of the paid exhibitions at the Art Gallery of WA, I leave wondering why the Art Gallery people seem oblivious to what I call fatal flaws in an exhibition.
We leave in an isolated part of the world, off the beaten track for most cultural events. Now that our State's economy is booming, there is a demand for Art. More precisely, a demand for conventional traditional classic Art. Masters of the Past. Historical Pieces. Pieces exhibited in big Museums overseas. The problem with some of the paid exhibitions is that, many times, the material we get is the one other galleries want to lend us, not what we would like to see, or what is excellent. Still, this is better than nothing, and a sort of luxury we have to pay for.
Now, we have the flashy exhibition and the masterpieces, and what does the Gallery to exhibit them? Let me think. Hanging the pieces from the wall. Having paid information earphones. Having security people around. Controlling the access to the paid area...
How many times have you seen the image of a bulb (or two) reflected on a canvas in a way that affected your viewing of it no matter how much you moved around it? This was the case in the last two paid exhibitions I have visited: the Picasso to Warhol exhibition, and the Picturing New York.
Both of them had the same problem. Lighting was bad. What I call bad?
1/The lighting is not specifically adapted to the pieces exhibited, but the general one of the room with directional lights that are mediocre and work well for large format exhibition or rooms with a better layout. Therefore, the lighting reflects on the masterpiece, and it does not allow you to appreciate the colours, shapes, textures or images on display from a frontal point of view.
2/ The glass used in the frames is not mate but glossy glass, so it reflects the lights, and the framed piece becomes a mirror where you see yourself (and the rest of the room) reflected. See, as an example, the image that accompanies this entry. Hello, me! Most of the photos hanging from the wall had the same problem, although some of them were less affected than others.
This would not be a problem, if were talking about an independent money-lacking exhibition or institution. However, this is the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and these are paid exhibitions. Our ticket should serve to have the pieces better exhibited, no? However, adjusting lighting and glass panels would cost more money and would take more effort. How is possible that
the curators of the Gallery and the original owners of the pieces do not
care about this? Perhaps because everybody seems to be content with the
poor display, no matter the quality of the piece exhibited. Nobody seems to be complaining in Perth, Art critics, newspapers or the general public. So no one is
making an effort to change it. My guess.
If I pay for an exhibition, I expect it to be exhibited in a way that honours the artists and pieces on display. Otherwise, I leave, as I did last time, feeling that I should have paid for the Catalogue; at least there the the pieces are beautifully photographed and can be appreciated properly. This is a bit sad, really. Especially because some of the pieces hanging from the walls are fantastic.
312/A William St
Northbridge Western Australia 6003
Phone: Helloooooooo anybody theeeeeere?
Email: kurbgallery@westnet.com.au
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Kurb Gallery is always an exciting place to visit, as it is quite raw in conception, varied in visual languages and formats, and you get the pulse of what is happening in Perth. If you want to know what the young artists of Perth are doing, those emerging and not really known by anybody, those trying to break through and out of traditional art-market scene, Kurb is your place.
Kurb is a bit hit and miss, and some exhibitions are great, even fantastic, and others are not. Still, it is nice having the artists there, as some of them are quite nice and you can talk to them.
The artists pay about 300 dollars per week for exhibition, so it is quite normal having several artists exhibiting at the same time, or exhibitions lasting one week or two. Most guys are really young, so this is a lot of money for them.
The pieces exhibited are for sale, some of them really cheap, and others are, on the contrary, overpriced. However, nobody is there pushing to buy anything. Do as you please.
Kurb is worth a visit or several, especially if you live or hang out around Northbridge. It is an alternative place, and, as such, it deserves, our appreciation. There is no hype or pose about it, and that is always fantastic.
676A Beaufort St
Mt Lawley Western Australia 6050
(09) 2716 459
http://www.emerge-art.com.au
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Emerge-Art-Space/151606848217955
Hours:
Wed-Sat 11:00 - 16:00
Emergence Art Space is a small commercial gallery that exhibits and sells contemporary Australian Art. Located in the heart of Mount Lawley, a few steps from almost any bar, café or restaurant in Beaufort's coffee strip, EAS is a microcosms of talent and good taste to be enjoyed by art lovers and posh art collectors. The gallery exhibits and represents a group of local painters and sculptors with different and distinctive styles.
The building might not catch you attention, but the pieces of art in their shop-window might do so. There are two main exhibition areas, the pretty one downstairs at street level with wooden floors and great lighting, really well curated, which holds the solo exhibitions, and the space upstairs and the long corridor, which isn't that glamorous or good, and showcases individual pieces by different artists not as wow as the ones downstairs.
Enter Emergence, don't be shy - the curator will welcome you and tell you a bit about the exhibition, even if your wallet is not big enough to purchase any of the pieces hanging from the wall. This is one of those places that, a-priori, you expect nosey people, and find welcoming warm art dealers with a good nose for talent.
The quality of the artworks exhibited in the main area is fantastic and varied, from abstract to figurative, surrealism to realism, conceptual art and anything in between, including Aboriginal Art, depending on the solo exhibition and artists featured each month.
Right now, when this review is written, there is a fantastic exhibition by Australo-French tin sculptor Pierre Capponi that made me wish badly to be a "poshie" of the world to buy something.
47 James St
Perth Cultural Centre
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9492 6600
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One of those places you must visit in Perth. Why? It is free! It is good!
The permanent exhibitions (colonial painting, classic painting and Aboriginal gallery) alternate with yearly free exhibitions, the Year-12 students being a must as it showcases the great talent of the emerging Perthian Artistic Community.
Now and then, the gallery also holds International exhibitions showcasing overseas pieces, but they are somewhat downgraded, never the super-duper ones. Even the super-duper ones are somewhat adjusted to the gallery and never the whole thing you can see elsewhere. The last example being the Picasso to Warhol, with a uneven selection of pieces, the pices by Picasso, Matisse, Miro or Deschamps under-represented and being secondary pieces in general, not the super-duper ones. Even the guides of the exhibition were mediocre, but at least people had the recorded comment of the pieces, which is something.
Although you cannot compare this gallery to the interstate ones (I thought that Darwin's or Adelaide's were better! just to mention two little cities that are poorer than Perth), European or American ones, it is a good place to visit. If you are a foreigner you will enjoy the Aboriginal area. The permanent collections are terrific, with wonderful pieces by Australian and International artists, that might surprise you. Some of the free exhibitions by local artists are also great, not so popular with the general public, perhaps, but at least the real thing. I still remember the terrific sculpture exhibition by Gabriella Piccini, that let me wow.
The gallery also has a mini-theatre where some functions are somewhat held, and artists talks. Check their website to see what is going on.
The AGWA is alive, that is a good thing. The bad thing is that it does not renovate or re-invent itself as much as it would be needed for the gallery to become a first-class gallery. All comes down to money and demand for Art exhibitions in Perth, and it seems that the new well-off people in Perth are more into designer-brands shops than into Art; they invest in the stock-market but they are not patrons of anything that is not themselves. If I was a millionaire I would be donating to the AGWA. Give me the millions! Each time I pass by the "Gucci Plasticucci" shop I think of this. All comes down to what the people or Perth want or are interested in, and the demand for true art in Perth seems limited, so our gallery is, how to put it? a bit parochial. Cultural and Education institutions do not promote free culture or free talks about Art, so the general knowledge is minimal or non-existing. People know big names, but do not know, understand or appreciate why they are masters or well known. This being so, they will rarely go beyond the obvious jewels of the past and show any interest on contemporary Art that is not conventional in forms or languages, and are satisfied with the "famous" artists and pieces of art, and not even with those if they are not "beautiful".
Perth Cultural Centre James Street
Western Australia Western Australia 6000
(08) 9228 6300
http://www.pica.org.au/
Hours:
Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 6pm
THREE MATTER-OF-FACT FACTS ABOUT PICA
1/ It is in the heart of the city - Open your heart!
2/ It is free - Free your spirit!
3/ It is good - My Goodness!
THREE SUPER-DUPER FACTS ABOUT PICA
1/ It is full of "exhibitionists". You know, people who stripe their souls and brains bare and display them on the wall, on the floor, from the ceiling, and so on.
2/ It is full of unusual pieces of art, on any sort of media you can imagine of.
3/ They also have art "talkalists". Those are a rare species of artsy people you rarely find elsewhere.
TEN REASONS TO VISIT the PICA
1/ You like Contemporary Art/s.
2/ You don't know what Contemporary Art is all about, but don't want to confess this to anybody, so better go and check something out: an exhibition, a show, a talk, whatever.
3/ You want to feel the magic of expanding your artistic horizons in a confined environment.
4/ You have a new somebody in your life who is artsy, and want a place to take and impress him/her without going bankrupt.
5/ You want to show the world that you are brave enough to visit a place that doesn't serve alcohol at midday and requires of your full senses to move around.That makes you officially hot! Can you handle your hotness?
6/ Did I mention the Art/s?
7/ You are leaving the country and have spare change for their gold-coin donation box. No gold? Dontawori, ozi coins are cool, too.
8/ Nobody will display a nosey attitude because you are wearing your flip-flops, micro-shorts, a stinky "unwashed" T-shirt at the gallery. They welcome the artsy-fartsy in you.
9/ You want to say hello to the lovely guys that work there.
10/ You want to get your official stamp, all over your face, as PICAchu, PICAdian or PICAmisù. Choose your adjective at pleasure, dude.
MANIFESTO
I swear I was not paid by PICA to write this oh-so-fabulous review. I do so out of pure l-o-v-e. However, one of those wonderful prints by Louisa Hansal, would be an invaluable addition to the bareness of my apartment's walls. Ahhh, day-dreaming is free, as everything at the PICA.
CURSE
If you reproduce this review without my permission, or mutate it to suit your needs without my permission, I swear to the Three Muses of the Arts that I will curse you so hard that you'll be frigid all over. You've been warned!
16 Queen St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9321 8366
http://www.venn.net
Hours:
Mon-Tue 7:00 - 18:00
Wed-Fri 7:00 - 0:00
Sat 9:00 - 0:00
Sun 11:00 - 20:00
The Venn is a little gem semi-hidden from the busy CBD, still in its very heart, that integrates art, food, drink, and shopping in one cool place.
The gallery is elegant, spacious and well curated regarding lighting and display. However, they need a bit of more sophistication, because sticking the wonderful photos on display on the wall by using drawing pins is not very cool, or very artsy, or very impressive. The girl at the desk was welcoming, very cool and really really nice and helpful. The sort of person you want to find in an alternative art gallery. I was really impressed.
The shop is very cool in design - a sort of white theatre that perfectly showcases the colourful items on sale. It is very retro and 1960s, and, in that regard, not very innovative. Still, you'll find very cool thingies you don't need but you madly want to have, like wonderful wrapping papers, colourful synthetic decorative artefacts, wooden toys, odd calendars, and fun jewellery pieces. I hate the Pantone mugs, which are now in every second shop that pretends to be cool; they are the antithesis of creativity and of art, and b-o-r-i-n-g. The shop attendant was lovely, and so very artsy and colourful herself!
The coffee shop is very trendy and modern, still warm and welcoming, and very intimate. A perfect place to have a coffee on your own or with a friend to whisper her all your secrets, or with your dream man separated from your nose by barely a few centimetres. All cool! I was there at an odd time of the day and the food on display wasn't very appealing or much in general, but I will return for breakfast to taste their coffee and food and report back another day.
The roof-top terrace is very cool and cosy, although it was closed when I visited. However, the music was on, and too intrusive for the visitor of the gallery who wants to focus on the works on display and not on music that is not specifically thought for the exhibition. If you want the gallery to have music, great!, then find the music that matches in spirit or concept the works on display. Otherwise, the spell that the viewer gets into while looking at Art is broken. Think about this, guys, when the bar is not open. This item of advice is for free, so take it as a gift, not as criticism. OK? If you want more items of my super-duper advice, you might have to pay for it.
The dudes around were certainly very appealing =).
5/1 Forbes Rd
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 6142 1215
http://www.oktachoron.com
Hours:
Tue-Fri 11:00 - 18:00
Sat-Sun 12:00 - 17:00
OK Gallery is OOkee-Dookey!
Embraced by a bunch of Chinese shops, cosily distinct from them by its outside je-ne-sais-quoi and a colourful logo, OK Gallery is a little one-room gallery for independent emerging artists and exhibitions that is also independently operated and managed. I am always thrilled with places like this because they are, to me, what Art galleries should be. Kudos to you guys just for that.
Despite the size and the conception, I felt that the place wasn't welcoming, intimate, or even well curated. The pieces needed of a better lightening, more darkness to be seen as they were conceived and supposed to be exhibited during daylight hours, but it was difficult to see anything. My lovely OK friends, a pair of shutters or canvas blinds on the windows, to move up or down with your beautiful sexy muscles when needed, are a must. If you don't take care of the lightening of an exhibition, of what are you taking care then?
I expect to find Art enthusiasts and lovers in a gallery like this. I want to feel your enthusiasm for the exhibition you are exhibiting to start with! Is that too much to ask? Otherwise you are doing the same thing that mainstream galleries do. Poses or noses don't impress anybody, but the vibe of a place. Treat the indie visitors as the rarity they are, offer your help and let the visitor decide if he/she wants to wander in silence and alone, or want to know about the art on the walls. That is the whole purpose of Art itself, the impressions, the thoughts, the words, the aha and wow moments you get from an exhibition. Are you interested in what your exhibit provoke in the viewer, or you just want to get the posh review in the Western Australian to talk about you? I am also a reviewer :O.
OK is a place with great potential, and I liked it, but I expect more. I am looking forward to returning for their next exhibition and checking if my so-so experience was just due to one of those days that we all have in which everything seems to be out of enlightenment or alignment, or both. I will update at the proper time.
