THE EDGE CANNOT HOLD / THE LOST SEA / OPGELICHT
Alexander Boynes The edge cannot hold - final weekend, exhibition closes Sunday 29 June
Curated by Benjamin Shingles.
Boynes states that "the idea of 'the edge' runs throughout this series: where images collapse, ecosystems fail, and social and political thresholds are tested. These works reflect a world under strain but also offer gestures of care, continuity, and resistance."
Shingles writes in his curatorial essay, "The Edge Cannot Hold presents a body of Alexander Boynes’ new paintings set to the apocalyptic themes of W. B. Yeats’ post-World War I poem, 'The Second Coming'. The title presents an apt malapropism to Yeats’ prescient observation, 'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold' and bridges the disillusion pervading Boynes’ body of work and the resigned sorrow of Yeats’ poem."
Catalogue and essay available at civicartbureau.com
The edge cannot hold was reviewed by Kerry-Anne Cousins for the Canberra City News.
Lizzie Hall: The Lost Sea/Charon
Now showing in the Civic Art Bureau window gallery.
Charon is the mythical figure who transported souls damned to the underworld across the infernal rivers Archeon and Styx.
The Lost Sea refers to the Aral Sea, once abundant, now a desert.
Hall’s motif of the boat, broken in two by the void between the painted panels, is suspended in space, without a horizon, in darkness or mist or dust. Is the void between the paintings where the figure of Charon stands? In between worlds where he cannot be seen by mortals?
Hope is abandoned when the boundary between the living and the dead is crossed, and for those standing on the mortal shore the grief rises like the salt in a dying lake.
This painting was recently shown in Lizzie's solo installation The Lost Sea at Platform by Canberra Contemporary. The companion to this work, diptych 3, is now showing in the group exhibition HORIZONS at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. Earlier this year Lizzie’s paintings carrying similar themes were shown in ELEGY with Kate Stevens at Civic Art Bureau.
Lizzie Hall is represented by Civic Art Bureau.
Wouter Van de Voorde: OPGELICHT
Opening 3pm Saturday 5 July
Opgelicht is Wouter Van de Voorde’s first solo exhibition in Australia.
Opgelicht, Dutch for “lit-up” or “scammed,” speaks directly to the material nature of this exhibition. Hand-made processes and techniques reflect an embrace of imperfection and human error. At the same time, Opgelicht refers quite literally to light: the illumination of scenes onto photographic film, or photographic paper being exposed in a wet darkroom.
Exhibition runs until 27 July. Catalogue includes an essay by Martyn Jolly.