From Andrew Frost…
What can one make of the contemporary art of printmaking? And what are the techniques that is bringing the ancient and venerable art into the 21st century? The Japan Foundation Gallery, locked away inside the Chifley Plaza in the centre of Sydney and too-often overlooked despite its excellent calendar of shows, presents a meeting of cultures between 25 Australian and Japanese artists.
Featuring an array of aesthetic approaches 25×25 a dazzling collection of new work ranging from abstract to realist, stringently monochromatic to brightly colourful, minimalist to baroque. Among the Australians are Barbara Davidson whose My Garden highlights the intimacy of the printmaking process in both subject and execution, while Michael Kempson’s Ready or Not and Comparing Notes are decidedly kawaii. Japanese printmakers are equally adventurous and works such as Akiko Taniguchi’s Record of Cultivation effortlessly blends abstraction and figuration.
August 12 to 30
Japan Foundation Gallery, Sydney
Pic: Akiko Taniguchi, Record of Cultivation, 2012. Etching, mezzotint, chine-collé.
