Exhibitions
Urban Blend
8 - 19 November, 2011
Four artists; Evi Christofi, Niki McDonald, Rachel Lane and Lina Tesoriero each present a seperate solo exhibition at Hardware Gallery, combining the mediums of painting, mixed media work, photography and tapestry. Broadly defined around the urban landscape that these artists inhabit and source inspiration from, Urban Blend is an exhibition that explores ideas in a very personal way.
Niki McDonald - The ephemeral tagged, painted and ripped urban landscape is captured in the permanency of tapestry wool and collaged printed fabric. If there is a blank wall someone will fill it, others will add to it, creating an unpredictable collaborative piece of creativity at its rawest. The repetition of the stitches takes on the essence of dot matrix and the collaged images offer texture, relevance and contrast. The finesse of tapestry meets high voltage street art.
Lina Tesoriero - My art practice is based on creating images which are inspired by my immediate environment. That could be places from my travels to exotic locations in Europe or Asia, the Australian bush landscape or my home environment around the beach suburb of Bondi. Since 1990, I have been interested in manipulating materials and combining them in mixed media artworks, usually as 2-d works on canvas or paper. Tracing cast shadows and using stencils are also part of my practice. These devices are often used in my artworks combined with conventional painting and printmaking techniques.
Evi Christofi - My series of work revolves around my fond memories of objects from my childhood. Quite a number of these objects belonged to my older brother or sister who are 10 years older than me and so I remember being the annoying little sister who used to "borrow" their things when they weren't around. The images I have painted are like snapshots. Floating in nothing but white space, like a very distant memory.
Rachel Lane - I'm often asked "Why do you only ever take photographs of women?" I guess the honest answer is, whether it is intentional or not, my photos are an extension of myself. Each one becomes a self-portrait in a way. Suburbia provides all the inspiration I need for my art with its myriad of patterns and people and how they intertwine with each other to become something else.