By Matt Hewson
The Space Gallery’s new July exhibition features a range of diverse yet complementary artists, ranging from lino print to oil painting and line art.
The exhibition is now available to view, with the public invited to a free official opening celebration this Saturday, July 1 from 4pm to 6pm at the Newtown gallery.
Armstrong Creek artists Astrid Lempriere and Megan McInerney bring lino print portraiture and coastal oil paintings, respectively, while Rosie Crone, Tori Summer and Shona Twining engage in “an abstract study on portraits”.
Dakota Radakovic infuses his line art with cultural and political themes, while guest artist Venessa Zylka’s colourful still life paintings greet patrons from the feature wall.
Printmaker Lempriere made the transition to her creative business when COVID-19 lockdowns gave her the chance to reevaluate what she wanted from her working life.
“COVID brought a little bit of uncertainty to getting back into the workforce as a single parent after being a stay-at-home parent,” Lempriere said.
“So I just decided, to hell with making career choices that weren’t going anywhere in the pandemic; I’ll go sit in a classroom with a bunch of other women, and we did art once a week.
“From there, I just haven’t looked back. I’ve done multiple exhibitions, I started teaching (lino printing) about 18 months ago, I’ve been lucky enough to win a couple of local awards and even judge another printmaking competition, which was super fun.”
Lempriere said gallery owner Mandy Dollery’s inclusive and helpful policies were important for many up and coming local artists.
“I think the gallery is doing an amazing job at being a supporter to emerging artists,” she said.
“Often there is a really large stepping stone from that decision of ‘I’d like to get my art out there’ to getting into a gallery.
“A lot of us have learnt as we’ve been going, and Mandy does a lot of unofficial mentoring and sharing of knowledge, which is really awesome. It’s quite a community around the gallery.”
