HEADLAND is an exhibition of new work by artists Michelle Brodie, Dallas Bray, Tracie Bertram and Mandy Robinson

Established mid-career artists, colleagues and friends based in Newcastle NSW, each artist explores aspects of allegory or metaphor in their subject matter.  Although working very differently to each other, each of the artists share a passion for multi-layered, vividly detailed work, generous with colour, texture, pattern, and interwoven with stories.

In a world increasingly complicated by deep fakes, post-truths and prescribed, homogenised responses, this exhibition celebrates the handmade, the rich and laboured process of making, working and exploring ideas through art practice. The exhibition will provide an opportunity for simple, genuine connections to the personal and profound sparking thought and conversation about positive and practical solutions to the issues that confront and divide us.

Headland is an exhibition of paintings, drawings, ceramics and mixed media sculpture whether presented figuratively, or in a more abstracted manner, the four artists all offer stories of everyday life.

THE ARTISTS:

Tracie Bertram’s ceramic sculptures revel in the magic and mystery of the natural world. Her organic forms and motifs are repeated and reimagined to mimic and elaborate on the fractal elements of our world. Nature is full of clever oddities that we may or may not take notice of in our daily lives.

Dallas Bray’s paintings are often strange and enigmatic. He depicts the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary. Landscapes, figures, and still-life subjects inhabit surreal worlds situated between the mundane and the fantastic. Whatever the theme his work is always skilfully composed and painted with luscious and traditional rendering.

Michelle Brodie’s images are opportunities for reflection on memory and the self. Her paintings are symbolic, figurative and abstracted. Her experiences emerge in the paintings in a non-linear poetic way with a dark undercurrent.

Mandy Robinson’s drawings employ repetitive lines, grids and patterning to produce tightly bound abstract shapes that manifest as containers for her thoughts and fears. The strangely shaped bundles conceal and disarm their sometimes troubling contents, offering themselves as benign and familiar forms.

EXHIBITION DATES 29 Nov -15 Dec 2024

LAUNCH 29 NOV 6-8pm