Art Visual

MIKE SLEEMAN Head of Art

The right-brain brothers have expanded the horizons of traditional student art making in 2014 with their exciting, innovative and definitely postmodern responses to a broad range of stimuli. Working with concepts such as ‘The Self’ (Year 11) and ‘Making a Difference’ (Year 12), our kinesthetic and visual/ spatial learners have kept the St. Alban’s gallery full of confrontational, meaningful, raw and engaging artworks. Each work addresses a focus researched and developed by the artist, and is designed to ask questions, provoke responses and encourage viewers to take a stance on issues as broad as consumerism, religion, the environment, corruption, power and conflict. The St. Alban’s Gallery, located under The Clocktower, has become a most valuable focal point for the ultimate purpose of making art – to have it seen by the public.

Informed by a February day trip to the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, where Senior students experienced the phenomenal postmodern installations of Cai Guo-Qiang, TSS young artists have painted, drafted, filmed, edited and otherwise engineered a selection of highly original and meaningful works – eight of which were selected for “Energies 2014”.

“Energies” is the premier Art Exhibition for Senior Art students across the South East region of Queensland (it is held annually at The Gold Coast City Art Gallery), and to have so many TSS boys in this year’s show was a coup. In Year 12, Charlie Upton, Patrice Cialdella, Jake Kersten and Mat Loiaconi all had work on the wall, while Zac McFarlane, Hamish Thomson, Jordan Swan and Max Statham represented the Year 11 cohort. Jordan Swan’s work was selected to head up the publicity for the Exhibition.

Year 10 Art students again embraced the hub of Surfers Paradise as the visual stimulus for their major artwork, with Max Dowd, Mitchell Benson, Chris Lai, Jack Tobiano, Max Kremmer Ryan, Colton Bilborough, Jed Eglington and Egan Siggs each producing quality work that was recognised with an academic excellence award. Our Year 9s visited Burleigh Heads to investigate the cultural and historical significance of Jerribillum, with Kaimana Barry, Jim Chapman, Jye Hopkins, Max Quan, Jordan Phillips, Hayden Lansdown, Jake Jones and James Rotheram developing outstanding responses. Of course all student work in all year levels is posted on the Art blog, which can be accessed via Moodle.

Years 7 and 8 students are fully immersed in a course that provides experiential learning in a range of disciplines, which include digital design, painting, sculpture, drawing and graphic design units. These courses have been structured to provide minimal change required as the subject moves into the National Curriculum in 2015. Hugh Robinson, Finlay Gray, Flynn Baildon and Harry Cox showed great potential in Year 8, while Oliver Martin, Benjamin Owen, Wilson Statham and Duke Robertson have developed skilful responses in a range of visual media in Year 7. Boarders continue to take advantage of Art Prep, which runs most Wednesday evenings, and can provide another avenue for more personalised tuition.

Jordan Swan and Kaimana Barry represented TSS at The “Saltwater” immersion day at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery – a program hosted by the Gold Coast City Art Gallery, where students were given the opportunity to workshop with significant Indigenous artists.

Former TSS Art Teacher, and highly respected artist and writer Mal Leckie revisited the School across the Old Boys Weekend, hosting a retrospective exhibition of his landscape works in The St. Alban’s Gallery. Our Art students were most impressed, not only with Mal’s ability to communicate the complexity of nature with minimal detail, but with the awesome prices that his work is able to command!

Old Boy Tristan Stonhill will return to the School in November to hold his first solo exhibiton in our St. Alban’s Gallery, while Art stalwart Stephen Eardley was the headline act in “How We See You”, a group show at the Kirra Hill Gallery in October this year, this time featuring some of his recent portraits.