Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art Sydney: 2008 Post Chrysalis: Six Emerging Artists Presented by Natalia Bradshaw

Sydney-based art advisor, Natalia Bradshaw presents this exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art to provide exceptional signed and unsigned emerging artists the opportunity to expose their work to discerning collectors.
Post Chrysalis, a reference to the emergence from the cocoon, describes this exhibition of six remarkable emerging artists working in various mediums. Mediums vary from crocheting, to weaving, to constructing with meccano, to painting. Each artist pushes the limits of their media, making utterly beautiful works. “Regardless of the medium or the message, an artist must ultimately produce a work of beauty as that is what entices our eye,” says Bradshaw, creator of this exhibition. Bradshaw added that “Visual creativity lies in various mediums. Post Chrysalis celebrates extraordinary creativity, command of media, while celebrating visual beauty. Each artist in Post Chrysalis is exceptional in the direction they have chosen. I have delighted over the years in spotting great emerging artists and this exhibition presents a significant group.”

Using plastic fruit and vegetable nets, Annie Aitken ‘draws’ delicate vessels through stitching that refer as much to sculpture and drawing as they do to the crafts of weaving and sewing.

Helle Jorgensen uses drawing, painting, embroidery, knitting and crochet to delve into the natural world. In Post Chrysalis, Helle uses plastic bag yarn and crochet to make an ecological statement while celebrating nature’s marine beauty and commenting on its fragility.

Anthony O’Carroll’s oeuvre challenges the painting medium and stretches the boundaries of paint-on-paint, with graffiti spray paint wrestling with oils and acrylics. Despite quarrel of paint mediums, his canvasses are extraordinarily elegant and point to the great matter painters.

Edward Waring’s childhood fascination with the construction of docklands and the primary colours and graphics on the weatherworn hulls of ships are reflected in his delightful sculptures using discarded meccano pieces that also hark to Russian constructivism.

Object painter Judy Garb Weiss captures the essence and the life force of objects, superbly painted.

Neo-Goth painter, Heidi Yardley transforms fragments of memory and feelings of torment and loneliness into beautifully painted canvasses of extraordinary mystery.

Image: Detail, Helle Jorgensen, Cephalopod 2008.