Visiting the Art Galleries - APT 8

Last week the first day of the holidays started with a visit to the dentist my grandchildren. When the children were asked what they were going to do afterwards they said "We're going to the Art Gallery". The dentist's reply made me sad. He said he had never been to an art gallery - ever. I realised that for many people an art gallery is something completely outside their experience.

One of the things that I love about living in Brisbane is that the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art - QuaGoma have such a creative approach to exhibitions. There's always something magical going on, and always something that both children and adults will love. Over the summer holidays there's always a biggie with lots to enjoy for all ages. This summer it's the Asia Pacific Triennial 8.

On the drive to the gallery the children remembered how much they enjoyed some previous exhibitions. - this is a link to a post about these.
I was asked - “Are we going to see the spotty room? (Yayoi Kusama's The Obliteration Room here a white room was transformed with hundreds of coloured spots) Or maybe it’s the Sugar room?" (We miss you magic land 2011 - a fairy tale world created with sugar crystals). 

We would just have to see what was in store for us; perhaps today's visit will be as memorable.

                             Mandala of Flowers - an installation by Choi Jeong Hwa

The Mandala of Flowers is an installation by Choi Jeong Hwa. Viewed from the upper level one is transported into a different world. Down below a carpeted circle is covered with hundreds of coloured discs of different sizes.

A riot of Colour

Wait - discs? Lids - these are all just lids, different sizes of plastic lids - so simple but how the space is transformed. Children are encouraged to create mandala-like shapes with the coloured shapes.

Playing with Shadows

We only read the instructions as we were leaving so didn't keep to the suggestion to make a mandala but it didn't matter. The children had fun and spent ages creating a Christmas tree and a reindeer from the coloured lids. It was surprising to realise how long they were busy - my photos show the finished creations 40 minutes later. 

 

We wandered through the other exhibits making our way to GOMA and lunch. The Long Gallery has an installation that is both sculpture and sound effects. Surprised kids climbing on the sleeper structure were greeted with booming sounds - such fun. 

Everyday Whispers in the GOMA River Room has a booth where they whispered wishes to be added to the secret sound cloud. The collected wishes are played through a bank of speakers suspended from the ceiling. As you walk underneath the wishes float down.

There's so much to see that I'll definitely be back for another visit or two. APT kids have at least a dozen different activities - more than one day could easily be spent here. There's much for adults to enjoy as well. It's an ideal place to escape the heat of the Brisbane summer. You might just have a struggle to find parking so coming by bus or train is recommended. The exhibition is on until April and it's free. 

Connecting with buyers

The artist painting in the studio is removed from life outside - we bring our external experiences back into the studio and translate these feelings into paint. Then we take our work outside again and exhibit it - either in a gallery or online on our blog, website or on social media platforms.

Then a work is sold and moves to the buyer’s home and the artist’s connection with the work is broken. The artist needs to sell work to survive, but it’s often hard to say goodbye to a special piece. If a work is specially commissioned then there's a close relationship between the artist and the buyer. I have been fortunate to have had inspiring and enjoyable commissions recently. The painting below was so difficult to photograph - the extreme light areas are silver leaf and proved beyond my photographic ability to capture exactly.

Grey, silver black -  Oil on canvas 1000mm x 1000mm ©2012 Carol Lee Beckx

Collection Transform Hair

When the painting is sold at an exhibition frequently the artist will not know who the buyer was. Sometimes the gallery wants to keep their client list private and won't disclose the buyer's name. If  it’s group show there would be too much admin for the organisers to let each artist know who bought what.

Sometimes you find out years later who bought the painting. Recently I received an email from someone I hadn’t heard from for more than ten years. He had been looking at my website, discovered I had moved to Australia and wanted to let me know that he owned three of my paintings. It was so good that he took the trouble to write to tell me and send images of the paintings. These two paintings are from the time when I did many miniature paintings, quite a change of scale compared to some of my recent work!

Waterfront Cape Town - watercolour on paper est. 50mm x 80mm ©2012 Carol Lee Beckx

Fishing Boats Cape Town - watercolour on paper - est. 50mm x 80m ©2012 Carol Lee Beckx 

Occasionally the artist has a chance to connect directly with the buyer of a painting. Recently I spent a morning painting in a gallery where my work was being exhibited. I had a chance to talk to someone who had bought a painting of mine. There was a wonderful opportunity to talk about the creative process and my inspiration for the painting.

Then this week I received this email:

                  Every day when I come into the office it's the first thing I see and it's the last thing I  see as I'm closing the door to leave. I can't think of a more wonderful way to start or finish my working day - a beautiful image to carry me through the day and one that reminds me that no matter how arduous my day has been there is always something good about it.

An artist can ask for no more than this.