Quantity or quality, that's usually the choice you get at end of year graduate exhibitions of tertiary art institutions. The last couple of years have offered the former, providing little to write home about but this year this institution offers both. Scattered throughout the labyrinth of 'painting sheds' are 240 exhibits by 67 graduating students, including more then a few artists.
Some, like Megan Smither and Tadeusz Szwachla, exhibit an excellent ability to work their medium. Smither presents four mesmerizing grids each composed of multi-coloured lines that weave optical illusions of movement. Op Art may have been born in the sixties but it's still valid today for its celebration of colour and skill. Szwachla presents an image that is equally hypnotic if for different reasons. His Precursory composition in coffee coloured monochrome suggests microscopic threads that weave muscle tissue in the human body. The surface of this painting is as smooth and glistening as the imagined subject.
Others show interest in techniques, traditional and contemporary. Traditional etching is expertly exemplified by Sue Starcken in her series A Silent Reverie. These five large prints are unique states as each displays different accentuations the same motif. It is this subtle manipulation of the image that suggests the subject is a combination of the organic and the architectural. Contemporary techniques are exemplified in Rosie Fitzgerald's large compositions that appear to be the result of playing with plastic, perspex and paint. Her mostly red Morphis, mainly green Copse, and predominantly purple Ravine are visually exciting, in the experimental mode.
Textiles always provides a wide range of presentations, from old fashioned patchwork to modern fashion design. The choice of materials too is broad, from manufactured fabric to natural fibres. There is much to appreciate here in the practice of this art form. In particular the fascinating examples of woven paper and cotton threads by Pru Samuels, the quilted fabric sculptures by Maureen Hardwick and the gossamer-like swaths by Donna Franklin
One has to appreciate the fine drawing skill evidenced in the triptych by Jamie Engelberts and Clare Detchon as each takes us back to the basics. Engelberts demonstrates the importance of being able to render volume in black and white while Detchon reminds us that good drawing can add to a painting.
Like with most graduates shows, we find here evidence of juvenile antics pretending to be artistic. There are the obligatory 'wall works', by that I mean exhibits that fill a wall either with a collection of 'stuff' or the repetition the same image ad infinitum, to suggest there are students that can't make art so they attempt to make a comment. Unfortunately these efforts are mute. Thankfully, unlike many graduate shows, this one does have more works of art then examples of artifice. Catch it if you can.