Wagga Wagga-based artist Gregory Carosi is excited for people to visit his exhibition House of Cards, opening at the Wagga Art Gallery this Saturday. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Four new exhibitions will be launched at the Wagga Art Gallery this Saturday as part of its mid-winter launch.
The four radically different bodies of work include those crafted by local artists Gregori Carosi and Arthur Wicks, archive pieces from the Megalo Print Studio in Canberra, and paintings from Clarice Beckett.
House of Cards, created by Mr Carosi, is the largest of the new exhibitions and is a collection of several images used to create an uncertain and precarious 21st-century landscape.
Imitating a house of cards, the installation towers above the viewers, creating an exciting and atmospheric experience.
“The idea here is that each panel that you see, which is quite large, represents a card from a deck of playing cards,” Mr Carosi said.
“What we’ve done here, rather than build a traditional house of cards, is we’ve built a deck that allows the works themselves to interest people and perhaps get them to think about the environments we create, both built and natural, in the 21st century.
“I think that each of these works has its own personality, but they’re trying to hold together as a community here, a community without people, the viewers that come and walk through this large-scale installation.”
Mr Carosi’s exhibition was commissioned by the Wagga Art Gallery.
Mr Carosi explained the importance of continuing to support regional artists, despite the uncertainty that clouds funding allocated for rural galleries.
“This is a commission work by Wagga [Art] Gallery. Dr Leanne Hall and curator Drew Halyday have given me their faith to create something which I could never have done otherwise,” he said.
“It’s been a wonderful opportunity, and for me, it’s exceeded my expectations.
“Without serious funding, communities just can’t express themselves. As one artist among many in a vibrant artistic community, funding is our lifeblood. Without it, it’s not just the artists that are put out but the galleries and a range of public events as well.
“We’ve just had the Festival of W here in Wagga, and it was a knockout, as it always is, so, whether it’s for galleries or whether it’s for a whole range of community projects, it’s a really simple equation. We won’t be able to do it without funding.”
Arthur Wicks’ exhibition will feature paintings he created between 1967 and 1974.
“We have a lot of diversity on show at the moment and that is clearly seen through Arthur’s work,” curator Drew Halyday said.
“Arthur has been a local artist for a very long time, and a lot of his works that will be shown haven’t seen the light of day for over 50 years.
“A lot of Arthur’s works were produced around 1968 when he was in France and very much involved in the situation, as riots at the time.”
Megalo Print Studio will also have an exhibition, with works curated by renowned printmaker and founding director Alison Alder.
The exhibition titled Canberra vs the Government draws on the studio’s archive and demonstrates that Canberra is more than its political structures, and is a place where artists were brought together through the medium of printmaking.
The fourth and final exhibition features works by artist Clarice Beckett. Her exhibition, Paintings from the National Collection, presents works by what many art lovers consider to be one of the most original artists of early 20th-century Australia.
Deeply sensitive to the effects of colour, light and atmosphere, Beckett painted the life and scenery of her coastal home in southeast Naarm/Melbourne with an eye for the commonplace and fleeting effects of nature.
The launch of the four exhibitions will be held at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery on Saturday 26 July from 4 pm. Prior to the launch event on Saturday, an artist talk will be held with Gregory Carosi at 11 am, followed by Megalomania – Printmaking and Community – a discussion about the power of printmaking in activism and community, at 2:30 pm.
