Op Art a curated group exhibition 11 June to 7 July 2016
Op Art a curated group exhibition 11 June to 7 July 2016
This exhibition will cause flat lines to seemingly buckle, stationary colours to bleed and intersect, concavity to be created within even surfaces, afterimages to appear and motion to arise from stillness. Patterns will vibrate, concentric circles will quiver and depth will be deceptive. Op Art has appeared throughout many art historical movements, including Cubism, Constructivism and Dadaism. It is a genre that explores the varying illusionary optical effects that can be influenced by manipulating geometrical shapes and repeating colours. Perception differs from reality, revealing flaws within the human retina’s ability to always see things as they are. Contemporary artists continue to be fascinated by this genre, incorporating scientific and mathematical principles, formations found in nature, colour-theory, inspiration from technological advancements, as well as new media equipment, to further explore this area of ocular inquiry. Artists include Joel Arthur, John Aslanidis (Gallery 9), Lincoln Austin (Andrew Baker Art Dealer), Lee Bethel, Marion Borgelt (Dominik Mersch Gallery), Julie Brooke, Debra Dawes, Caroline DurrÊ, Sophia Egarchos, Justin Harvey, Jacob Leary (Flinders Lane Gallery), Al Munro, Paul Snell (Gallery 9), Greer Taylor, Lezlie Tilley, and George Tjungurrayi (Utopia Art Sydney).
Joel Arthur Artist Statement ‘Sinker’ utilizes pictorial devices that can be observed in Op Art from the 60’s; the use of repetition, the compression of line and colour theory. The painting nearly directly quotes works of Bridget Riley whose line is mathematically precise, logical, never breaking its system in its expansion and compression. Sinker, however, is more concerned with materiality, colour and gesture. Thick paint has been combed to reveal ground as line, and through this process material is incidentally left behind. Surface subverts pictorial illusion, line subverts physical presence. Instead of gridding, calculating, laboring over a perfect surface detail by detail, this kind of painting is immediate, active, more bodily in its execution.
Joel Arthur, ‘Sinker’ 2015 acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100cm
John Aslanidis (Gallery 9) Artist Statement Since the 1990’s I have been exploring the relationship between sound and vision. I use colour and line to create chromatic intensities that resemble the experience of listening to music. In the Sonic Network series I deploy a set of mathematical intervals to compose the paintings. The algorithms are akin to ‘musical scores’ which allow me to improvise. The interaction between the intersecting patterns creates a sonic resonance and kinetic vibration. The intention is to create imagery that occupies a sensory dimension between sound and vision, and has no starting or finishing point, capturing a fragment of infinity.
John Aslanidis, ‘Sonic sub fragment no. 31’ 2013 oil and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40cm
Lincoln Austin (Andrew Baker Art Dealer) Artist Statement In the space between the object and the eye light is transmitted. Within the eye an image is formed. In the space between the eye and the mind reality is interpreted. As the body moves in time the process begins again and again. In the space within the object an image is formed. As the body moves in space images appear and disappear. A continuous shifting, complex sequence of incomplete images is the best one can hope for.
Lincoln Austin, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ 2013 acrylic aerosol paint, acrylic, aluminium, LEDs, 101 x 121 x 13cm
Lee Bethel Artist Statement My work displays my mediative process of sorting, classifying and ordering whether it is nature’s random scatter of seeds or manipulating paper through cutting and folding. The seeds are meticulously placed in the constructed order of the cut and folded paper forms. The placement within these borders echoes the imposed order we place on nature. The introduction of natural objects such as seeds and blossoms sourced from the land connects the object to the place evoking the memory of the place. Colonial and commercial settlement replanted land in the style ‘after nature’, a northern hemisphere nature not its southern reality. These works reflect the relationship of a plant’s history to human use through classification, commercialism, physical movement and relocation that results in the particularities of a place. The irony of sourcing nature for use as arts material extends this human manipulation of flora particularly the notions of classification and reorder, reflecting the imposed ‘after nature’ aesthetic. Primary to the works is the manual processes of cutting and folding paper, utilizing the cast reflection of water colour and the placement of found objects all within the compositional devise of the grid. The process of repetition within the grid imposes a quiet order on the work. Lee Bethel, ‘Ode to Bridget II’ 2016 watercolour on hand-cut paper, 60.5 x 55.5cm
Marion Borgelt (Dominik Mersch Gallery) Artist Statement Marion Borgelt draws inspiration from subjects such as semiotics, language, cosmology and phenomenology to create atavistic fantasies and mysteries in the forms of painting, sculpture and installation. Her work suggests connections between culture and nature, between the constructed world and the organic world, between microcosm and macrocosm and the duality of light and dark. A lexicon of symbols and motifs, at once universal and personal, distinguishes the imagery of Borgelt’s work. Drawing on experience with a wide range of materials, including bees-wax, canvas, felt, pigment, stainless steel, wood, stone and organic matter, she hones her ideas to the demands of a given site, mediating the creative intervention with originality and sensitivity. By exploring the unique qualities of these materials she gives them their own voice and expression. In the presence of Marion Borgelt’s work one is struck by the energy that her vibrant works emit. The intricate contours and curves are bathed in Borgelt’s signature luminous hues. The paintings and cut works appear alive, animated by vivid colours in metallics and oils. They illuminate their immediate surroundings creating a lively ambience, enveloping the viewer with their light and apparent motion. Particular series are especially notable for their force, namely the Strobe and Liquid Light suites. These works are charged with a strength that remains dormant until it encounters the viewer. They seemingly shift before our eyes, creating optical illusions and distortions. We are struck by the power of the pieces, finding them beguiling and occasionally unsettling. Borgelt explores complex themes such as motion, the sequential measuring of time and the orbit of the moon and planets in sculptural installations such as Moonlight Tsukimi, Lunar Warp and Lunar Circle. The influence of the celestial on our sense of time and space is immeasurable and it is from this fact that Borgelt draws inspiration, referencing the passing of time, the constant state of flux, the ‘heartbeat’ of our solar system. As the ancient philosopher Heraclitus said: ‘Change is the only constant, nothing endures but change itself’. (Mia Pinjuh) Marion Borgelt lives and works in Sydney travelling each year to World Heritage protected sites advancing her knowledge of history, art and architecture. Marion Borgelt, ‘Persian Strobe No.6 Revisited’ 2013 oil on canvas, 120 x 120cm
Julie Brooke Artist Statement As a former research scientist, I explore the potential of geometric art to visualise speculative, hypothetical thought through the creation of spatially ambiguous and optically active imagery. Extended Labyrinth explores how colour organised within a distorted grid can create a sense of warped space and optical vibration. I paint with gouache into pencil grids drawn over an acrylic ground on laser-cut boards. These fit together to create amorphous crystalline forms that can be rearranged into new combinations, creating different spatial and optical effects. This modular work developed from a residency held in the ANU Department of Applied Mathematics in which I worked with topologists who investigate a complex labyrinthine structure involved in the formation of butterfly wing-scales. Extended Labyrinth references the mathematical complexities of this form, while aiming to evoke the shimmer of the butterfly’s wing. Particular influences are the optical artists Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely, and the neo-concrete movement in 1950s Latin America. Neo-concrete artists such as Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica and Waldemar Cordeiro were passionate advocates for the role of sensuality and the physical body in the creation and perception of geometric optical art, and it is this theme above all that I explore in Extended Labyrinth. Julie Brooke, ‘Extended Labyrinth’ 2015-2016 gouache, pencil + acrylic on boards, dimensions variable
Debra Dawes Artist Statement ‘Double-dealing’ consists of conflicting visual systems. One is the illusion of space and the other is the antithesis of this, planar space or space that exists on a unified plane. They are both at play in Double-dealing exerting a dynamic push and pull that confounds one single way of looking. The negative and positive forms shift constantly creating an active negotiation embracing concurrent differences. A salient proposition for our contemporary world.
Debra Dawes, ‘Double-dealing untitled’ 2016 oil on canvas, 170 x 110cm
Caroline Durré Artist Statement The forms in ‘Not-garden (red and green)’ are derived from the design of parterres that were a central feature of the formal garden of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe. I have taken the elements of these designs, which played at the intersection of organic growth and abstract ornament, and have reconfigured them to make an optical sphincter that perforates or protrudes from the wall. I aim to make secretive enclosures that invite exploration yet forbid entry, just as the formal garden, despite its apparent regularity, could manipulate perceptions of space in order to entice and disorient the viewer. These historically-derived sources are also in play with the op art tradition; the project of optical enigma is alive in the age of virtual reality.
Caroline Durré, ‘Not-garden (red and green)’ 2007 oil on linen, 152 x 152cm
Sophia Egarchos Artist Statement ‘Point of No Return’ consists of 7 custom wood panels that make a large-scale wall work. The work wraps around a floating wall in the gallery collaborating and occupying the space to alter and shift the works presence suggesting the idea that painting is not only a two-dimensional surface but also a three-dimensional object that is sculptural, structural and architectural. I am interested in activating areas of a gallery space that are often overlooked to depart from the traditional sense of painting and the traditional way of looking at a painting in a gallery space. ‘Point of No Return’ is viewable from all three sides and the viewer needs to walk around the wall to get the full effect of the pattern and the work, in doing so they are also viewing the wall and the gallery space in a different way. The pattern of colour and repetitive lines cut, overlap, intersect and connect around the wall to manipulate and initiate illusions of rhythm, movement, space and depth creating a false three-dimensionality in the flat surface. This illusion is further accentuated by the fact that the artwork becomes an object as it is not placed on the wall, but encompasses the wall. Not only is there a pattern in the painting, the artwork becomes a pattern and the wall becomes part of this pattern in the negative whiteness of the wall.
Sophia Egarchos, ‘Point of No Return #2’ 2015/16 acrylic paint on custom timber panels, 270 x 720 x 107cm
Justin Harvey Artist Statement ‘Curtain’ is a recently completed video work forming part of my practice based PhD at UNSW Art & Design. It evolved out of my research around digital video feedback loops created using a smartphone camera, television monitor and domestic wifi network. Performing experiments with movement, angle and distance of the camera to its delayed video output, I developed novel techniques for creating still and moving images. By using the panoramic function of the camera in this context, I captured a series of abstract panoramas out of the strobing colour cycles induced by the competing frame and refresh rates. ‘Curtain’ is the result of running these images through extensive postprocessing in video editing and effects programs. ‘Curtain’ displays hallmarks of Op Art such as the illusory w arping of geometrically straight lines and colour interactions that provoke a sense of depth within the two dimensional video plane. However unlike traditional Op Art, where artists work meticulously to create a discordant figureground relationship, the source images comprising ‘Curtain’ were created via an unpredictable process of human/machine interaction. The title is both descriptive of the work’s appearance and a reference to the video screen as facade, masking the invisible flows of energy that deliver visual experiences in almost every waking moment of our technologically mediated lives. Justin Harvey, ‘Curtain’ 2016 HD Video - infinite loop, edition of 6
Jacob Leary (Flinders Lane Gallery) Artist Statement The set of works from the show Op Art, is part of an ongoing series of sculptural forms based on layered paper cuts of various colours. Emerging from self-organising algorithms incorporated by the artist which generate the 3-d form of the works, these sculptural qualities are produced by implicit tendencies within the processing of pixel based images. These attributes guarantee a move from simplicity to complexity or vice versa depending on the way the viewer chooses to interpret with the work. Starting as a two dimensional shape or ‘terrority’ produced by the artist, the paper cuts extrude the work into three dimensions simultaneously producing a topological form as the complexity of the starting shape reduces incrementally. In this sense the original shape deteriorates as the initial formal complexity is gradually subsumed by the basic unit of the pixel. Producing both a negative and positive form the emergence of the works echo coexisting relationships between form and environment, subject and object; between the existence of entities in the world and the material reality which shapes and forms them. Hovering between machine and hand production the work processes implicit within the construction of these sculptures rest on notions of ‘virtual potential’ allowing for an infinite number of formal variations. Jacob Leary, ‘Organic swallow (neg)’ 2016 stacked papercuts, 30 x 30cm
Al Munro Artist Statement The paintings in the Pleated Logic series continue my interest in exploring the way textile forms, such a pattern and structure, allow us to reconsider the spaces of abstract painting. Pleated and folded fabrics create spatial forms which are flexible and elastic; mathematically, pleating and folding allows a transformation from two dimensions to complex hyperbolic spatial forms. This exhibition draws on ideas developed on recent residencies in northern Thailand, and my interest in the heavily pleated Hmong textiles found in the region. These textiles are patterned with linear forms, often prints, stitched or embellished onto the lengths of cloth prior to pleating. The pleating and the movement it enables creates a shifting and deformation in the patterned surfaces. It is this play between spatial forms and the shifting, stretching and contracting of the patterned pleats which have informed this work.
Al Munro, ‘Surface Logic’ 2016 acrylic on wood panel, 91 x 91cm
Paul Snell (Gallery 9) Artist Statement The primary intention of this body of non-objective work is to create a simple visual experience utilizing the basic elements of line, colour, surface and light. The reductive nature of the work examines and brings into question the image as self-referential object. The work starts a dialogue in the sense of perceiving and using visual levels of perception in an endeavour to create a physical, mental and sensorial experience.
Paul Snell, ‘Pulse #201501’ 2015 lambda print to face-mounted 6mm Plexiglass, edition of 3, 118 x 118cm
Greer Taylor Artist Statement ‘endgrain : shield i’ sets up an interplay between exposure and protection. An endgrain is only exposed when something is opened up to reveal that which is usually hidden, while a shield is a means to provide protection. Large coloured oval forms hover off the wall, a shield protecting that which is behind… While the coloured ‘growth rings’, the fragility of threading and the tubular rubber-lined hole that penetrates through to the wall each act in contrast to the ‘shield’, exposing a sense of vulnerability, exposing and revealing what is behind. An optical illusion is created by the threads as they interact with their own shadow on the painted shield surface – the pattern created is reminiscent of magnetic field lines – a description of the unseen energy between opposing forces of the north and south of a magnet. The exact pattern will be dependent on the angle of lighting. At times the flat oval can have the illusion of being bowel-like as the upper surface, created by array of radiating threads, pops in and out of appearing flat or peaked. Greer Taylor, ‘endgrain: sheild i’ 2013 automotive paint on aluminium, neoprene, 150 x 120 x 13cm
Lezlie Tilley Artist Biography Since her first show with the Gallery in 1991, Lezlie Tilley has produced work for almost twenty solo exhibitions at Access Contemporary Art Gallery/Brenda May Gallery. Tilley has studied at the National Art School (formerly East Sydney Technical College) in Sydney and Newcastle School of Art & Design, where she completed a BA in visual arts in 1983. Since then Tilley has exhibited in a multitude of group exhibitions and numerous solo exhibitions, the majority of which have been with Brenda May Gallery. Tilley has also had solo shows at Nick Mitzevich Gallery, Newcastle Art Gallery, the University of Newcastle and PODspace Gallery in Newcastle.
Lezlie Tilley, ‘Static Electricity Posing as a Coral Fern’ 2015 acrylic on canvas, 102.5 x 102.5cm
George Tjungurrayi (Utopia Art Sydney) Artist Biography George Tjungurrayi was born in the desert in the vicinity of Kiwirrkura in approximately 1943, and is the younger brother of Naata Nungurrayi. George walked into Papunya with another young man along a freshly graded road, after living at Mukula West of Kiwirrkura. He commenced painting for Papunya Tula Artists in the early 1980’s. George lives and works in Kintore, Northern Territory.
George Tjungurrayi, ‘Untitled’ 2009 acrylic on linen, 183 x 153cm
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