Two TAFE Fine Arts graduates are jointly presenting a show this week at the Kurb Gallery in William Street, Northbridge.  Pierre Capponi and Tom de Munk-Kerkmeer are men who must make art, and each has something to say.  But let me tell you more about these artists, and remember, you heard it here first.

Pierre Capponi built a solid 30 year reputation in Perth as what was known in the retail trade as a Visual Merchandiser.  Yep, he ran an independent business as a window dresser and worked for all the leading retailers creating those window wonders that made shopping an adventure.  Sadly, it’s a commercial art that ‘fell over’ as other forms of merchandising gained ascendancy and retailers sought to reclaim floor space to 'sock it to you', those windows had to go.  But when you’ve spent your life as a creative person, you can’t just take up golf.

Capponi, who came here from France in the early 60s, is now a painter and sculptor.  He makes art about the hardships and isolation of white people in Western Australia’s outback and remote regions.  He’s spent extensive periods living among predominantly indigenous communities in places where the loneliness and silence of this land can drive white people ‘spare’.  He speaks about this with ‘improvised’ objects and patinas of rust (fixed and archival) that you can’t find in paints in cans or tubes.  Try not finding tears in your eyes when you see My Christmas Scooter, a representation of a home made gift to a child in some forgotten landscape.  Christians is another powerful sculptural essay about the work of missionaries (for good or bad) among indigenous people.  Among his paintings, The Elders is a standout.

Tom de Munk-Kerkmeer was born in Perth but raised in Holland among a family of artists.  He returned to Perth 10 years ago, supporting himself along the way by making art.  In fact you could say that Tom sees art in almost everything.  Advertising material that arrives in his letterbox is recycled into supports for painting.  The results that emerge from his imagination are such that I’m thinking of taking down the sign on my letterbox that commands, ‘No Junk Mail!’  Similarly, wooden off-cuts from a carpenter’s saw become assembled ‘cities and suburbs’.  The Australian Dream, a sculpture made from found materials, sparked particular resonances for me.  Is home ownership a path to freedom and security, or a self-imposed prison?  I guess you’ve gathered that Tom’s work is ‘urban’, as opposed to Pierre’s ‘outback’.

The Kurb Gallery is a place where you go to ‘discover’ artists and form views about who’s likely to get hot, or not.  Viewing hours for this show are from 11am until 7pm.  Check it out.  And maybe afterwards, lunch or dinner at a nearby eatery?