Wild Things

4 September 2008 - 11 October 2008

Enter where the Wild Things are…if you dare.

“Arts Project Australia Gallery is proud to present Wild Things – an artistic exploration of flora and fauna. Featuring works by such diverse artists as Alec Brimage, Ruth Howard, Miles Howard-Wilks and Laura Sheehan. These vibrant and captivating images will lead you on a journey into the natural world.”

Curated by APA Arts Workers James McDonald, Lynette Young and Heidi Stewart, Wild Things showcases the natural artistic diversity of artists from Arts Project Australia.

Alec Brimage is most known for his attention to detail – everything from the almost graphic drawing and his attention to format and placement, right through to the highly descriptive, textual titles, makes for work that is beautifully rendered, highly resolved and visually poetic.

Ruth Howard’s passion for nature is revealed in her creation of hundreds of paintings each year. Her mastery of repetition as an artistic tool makes for vivid, striking images.

Miles Howard-Wilks’ shark paintings are as dramatic as they are finely rendered. His liberal use of vivid colour, married with clean, fresh lines and detailed observation produces lush images that draw the viewer into not only the natural world, but the artist’s world too.

Laura Sheehan’s work is characterised by its determined, chiseled mark-making, giving the finished images a frenetic energy and purposeful immediacy.

Also featured is Chris Mason, exhibiting his recent series of ceramic safari animals. These creatures of the wild express a robust quality, which is complimented by a sensitivity to material and form. It is Chris’ passion for his subject, coupled with his stylistic confidence that gives the work its strength and sophistication.

These accomplished artists are accompanied by a number of their colleagues, including Barbara Ball, Dionne Canzano, Adrian Lazzaro and Anne Lynch.

Wild Things offers the viewers, a rare and special opportunity to visit a world which we know well, but paradoxically, may never really inhabit ourselves. Even the commonplace in nature, viewed through the eyes of these very talented and original artists, becomes thrilling and vivid. This exhibition takes us on a journey through a world which we are familiar with, but which was hitherto unknown to us – the world of the Wild Things.