Six fine artists each display six works that add up to a remarkable exhibition of the various processes available to contemporary printmakers, and the flexibility within the artform.
Ann Bowman offers delicate etchings on silk in her series Garden Diary. Her square surfaces are partitioned into vertical and horizontal rectangles, each containing an aspect of the garden - a section of tree trunk, a flower, a skink, a piece of empty sky. The objects are finely drawn, accented with marks and hand coloured. Bowman's specimen box compositions could have been clinical if not for the fabric surface on which they are printed. The supple silk is pliant under the press causing the parameters to print less than rigid, which provides a softening effect.
Alex Hayes reminds us how strong and appealing the simple woodcut can be when well-considered and printed. His series Interior presents humble domestic subjects that have been transformed into interesting images via the boldness of the artform. These simple, linear, black and white prints include a corner of the kitchen, a cupboard, a still-life of bottle and bowl of fruit, each evoking the intimacy found only in a familiar place. Hayes works the positive and negative shapes with dignity of design and a sure confidence in the process. These are fine traditional prints that celebrate the medium.
The Landscape series by Hilda Klap reminds us how printmaking can easily cross into the realm of painting with no loss to either artform. Her bold mixed media images reference landscapes that can be interpreted on both the physical and metaphysical planes. The works involve processes of monoprint, collograph and hand colouring to produce a print that has much in common with a painting. Each is a unique state, uses strong colour, has textural interest, and is framed like a painting.
Sandra Lee Murphy also mixes media to produce unique state prints. Monoprint, collage, photocopy transfer, digital prints, stitching - you name it and it's on at least one of these images. Her Intersection series consists of 3 large and 3 small prints, each offering its own suggestion of narrative. The large works start with a blue square splashed with yellow before going on to include a faceless head or figure or cryptic writing. Each is an interesting and vital image. The smaller works are little gems, in particular Intersection five with its swirling blue background.
Vicky Stirling's imagery is all about boat building, a fascinating subject. Using photoetching in conjunction with other techniques she presents the skeletal hull of a boat in visual and conceptual attitudes. The idea is excellent and the drawing very good, the only complaint is with the colouring. Part of the plan and The completed hull are fine diagrammatic drawings/prints in their own right with sufficient interest in line and shape to render the heavy handed colour superfluous.
Gosia Wlodarczak presents a series of large computer generated prints in shades of grey enhanced by coloured linocut overlays. These abstractions, each named after a day of the week, provide layers of meanings as the images suggest different objects, activities or moods. Monday with its red taps and hint of a house brings to mind working in an over-grown garden, then Tuesday offers a fine line drawing of fruit in a bowl with cutlery laddering one side, while Wednesday has us remaining in bed snug under a red and blue patterned doona. But that's just one reading, the more we look the more we see and new narratives emerge from the imagery. Fascinating.
It's worth seeing this well presented exhibition of six intriguing prints
by six fine printmakers.