Tom Martin, 16 Sept - Oct 10, Plus One Gallery, London

Tom Martin's latest exhibition at London's Plus One Gallery is well worth a vist.



It's all good, Painting acrylic on board, 120 x 120 cm





Non GM, Painting Acrylic on panel, 100 x 100 cm




Delicately Smooth Taste, Painting Acrylic on aluminium, 125 x 96 cm




Healthy Digestion, Painting acrylic on board, 80 x 80 cm

Michael Zavros, until August 23, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland

The Good Son; A major survey exhibition of works on paper by Michael Zavros has opened at Gold Coast City Art Gallery. Zavros is highly regarded as one of Australia’s most significant younger artists and this exhibition brings together over 40 major works from public and private collections in an attempt to tease out the apparently diverse themes and subjects that he has pursued over the past decade – the leaping and falling horses, be-suited corporate men, high fashion, classical mythology, and French neo classical architecture.

The exhibition also seeks to reveal what the legacy of growing up on the coast may have had for the development of his ideas about investigating the allure and impermanence of beauty.



Lime Spider, 2009, charcoal and fluro paint on paper, 85 x 103cm, courtesy of the artist and GRANTPIRRIE


To accompany this exhibition Gold Coast City Art Gallery has commissioned a video portrait of Michael Zavros to be made by fellow artist and filmmaker Alex Chomicz. The video portrait follows the making of one of the major new works featured in the exhibition—Debaser/Dior—and takes the viewer up close in the studio to hear the scratch of pencil on paper and the click of the camera. The video can be purchased from the Gold Coast City Art Gallery A short segment of the video can be viewed below.





To visit Michael Zavros' website CLICK HERE


In The Real Art World interviews Michael Zavros about his recent exhibition, a survey of works on paper, The Good Son, at Gold Coast City Art Gallery


In The real Art World: You grew up on the Gold Coast, first exhibited as a high school student at the Gold Coast Art Gallery, now return with a survey of over 40 works. What is the Michael Zavros story, how have you and your art arrived at this point?

Michael Zavros I moved away from the Gold Coast to study fine art at Queensland college of art in 1994. I had had such a close relationship with the Gold Coast City Art Gallery, having worked as a volunteer there for a few years between finishing high school and starting tertiary study.
I loved working at the gallery - it was an entree into the art-world and gave me a keen understanding of a regional arts system. At the Queensland College of Art I studied printmaking which indulged my passion for drafting and for very specific processes. I also developed a love of works on paper via printmaking that has continued to inform my practice.
Some fifteen years later as I emerge out of the 'emerging' years of my practice, it seemed appropriate to bring a solo survey style exhibition back to my hometown. The curator of The Good son, Virginia Rigney and I decided to focus on one particular area of my practice - works on paper - and to present a really comprehensive exhibition of this work



Hall of Mirrors, 2008, 122 x 86cm, Charcoal on paper, Private collection


In The real Art World: This survey of works on paper brings together a body of work other than your more familiar precise and intricate paintings. How does the immediacy of drawing help inform your artistic practice?

Michael Zavros love drawing and it has always been central to my practice. I show more and more drawing alongside my painting in recent shows. There is certainly more of an immediacy to drawing than painting, that instant mark you can make with a pencil or a stick of charcoal. I particularly love charcoal for its rich velvety blacks but it is a very difficult medium to master. I've developed lots of little tricks to help me achieve some control over the charcoal and a full tonal range. Despite the rich contrasts, there is something wonderfully deadpan about charcoal, a steely matte quality that is impossible to create with oil paint. This compliments the airless narcism that so much of my work embodies.



Patent with Gold, 2009, 105 x 86cm, charcoal and gold paint on paper, courtesy of the artist and Philip Bacon Galleries


In The real Art World: Apart from the 40 or so artworks brought together for this exhibition, you also have drawn one work directly on the gallery wall. Tell me about this drawing?

Michael Zavros I drew the small trompe l'oeil taxidermic Springbok to 'decorate' the gallery wall. It 'hangs' above a suite of recent charcoal and spray paint works and plays with the notion of realist painting/drawing being considered decorative. The impermanence of this drawing which will be painted over at the close of the exhibition is also an extension of a recent body of work casting collectable artworks as hunting trophies.



Debaser/Belstaff, 2007, 122 x 86cm, Charcoal on Paper, Private collection


In The real Art World: Your art is concerned with concepts around the notion of perceived beauty as well possessing it's tangible aspects, whether it be in the subject's intrinsic nature, or it's surface representation in the form of an artwork. Can you elaborate on your interest in beauty?

Michael Zavros I do always seek to create something that is unashamedly beautiful to look at, to behold. I also consider beauty as a concept. My recent drawings of models with their ideal features erased manipulates the notion of 'surface' beauty - the currency of the model having been removed. But surface is important not just as a metaphor but literally in terms of the treatment of the drawing material on paper. The portrait having been lovingly rendered in charcoal is then aggressively removed but the features can't quite be erased - the charcoal stains the paper permanently. It is always important to me that what I am painting or drawing is reflected in how I am creating it; technique and subject somehow mirror each other.



Falling August, 2006, charcoal on paper, 123 x 86cm, collection of Grafton Regional Art gallery


In The real Art World: How do you go about finding the subjects for your paintings/drawings and what do you really look for when assessing it’s potential to make it as an artwork?

Michael Zavros I have tended to work from found images that I collect from books/magazines/catalogues. In the past I would crop these images or omit certain information but progressively, I'm completely constructing images that I work from in photoshop and other imaging programs. I sort of hibernate the resource imagery, leave it sitting in my studio or the vast inbox of my mind and if I still like it, if it still feels relevant after several months then it will enter my practice in some way.



Debaser/Burberry Prorsum, 2007, 122 x 86cm, Charcoal on paper, Private collection



In The real Art World: Tell me about your working process, how an idea becomes a finished artwork.

Michael Zavros As an artist who predominately works form photography, I am fortunate that I can pretty much see my work before I embark on creating it. The creative moment has long passed by the time I start painting or drawing and for some weeks afterwards until the work is complete, the process is just technical. Recently that creative moment has become a more drawn out process as I go to great lengths constructing the images that I work form. Part of this process is playing with various media and scale and how these elements assist in the delivery of the image or how it will operate. I usually find that the image determines what medium I employ. The media I choose, whether it is the steely deadpan quality of charcoal or the glossy luxe quality of oil paint, allows me to extend the visual possibilities of a subject or an image.



LV/L’Ennui, 2006,, Charcoal on paper, 120 x 85cm, private collection


In The real Art World: Who are the artists that at the moment you are looking at, or find their work resonates for you?

Michael Zavros I'm a huge Jeff Koons fan and am loving his work all over again as I pour over the images in a new book published to coincidewith his recent show at the Palace of Versailles. His wonderfully baroque and deadpan kitsch has intrigued me since I discovered his work as a student and I've long been inspired by Versailles - it draws me back constantly and finds its way into my practice. I love that Koons can be critical and complicit at the same time, and this is something I hope emerges from my own practice.



Fanta, 2009, 112 x 86cm, charcoal and fluro paint on paper, courtesy of the artist and GRANTPIRRIE


In The real Art World: Finally, what's next?

Michael Zavros I'm making a lot of sculpture at the moment. I work in plasticene and a local foundry takes molds and casts my work in bronze. I enjoy the challenge of making super realism and high detail in a three dimensional form. Bronze sculpture offers an impenetrable veneer in much the same way that oil painting does, and I love the manipulation of another very traditional medium in a contemporary context.

Vincent Fantauzzo, until July 25, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne

Vincent Fantauzzo: Inner Conflict
Vincent's latest exhibition at Dianne Tanzer Gallery consists of a single painting "Inner conflict" measuring 240 x 420 cm ( roughly 8 ft by nearly 14 ft ).

to visit Dianne Tanzer Gallery Click Here



Inner conflict, 2009, oil on linen, 240 x 420, (Studio view )




Inner conflict, 2009, oil on linen, 240 x 420, (Installation view 1)




Inner conflict, 2009, (Studio view ), oil on linen, 240 x 420, (Installation view 2)

Pamela Wilson, Sarah Bain Gallery, Anahein, California

Pamela Wilson "Awkward Soliloquies"

One more exhibition to add to those I missed listing here before they closed. Pamela Wilson, an artist I have admired for some time and someone definitely worth keeping an eye. Her latest exhibition at Sarah Blain Gallery is now over, but can still be seen online.

To visit Sarah Bain Gallery Click Here



The Sun Is A Thief, 2009, Oil on Canvas, 60" x 30"




Some Bullets Are Special, 2009, oil on canvas, 48" x 36"




An Inviting Abyss, 2009, oil on canvas, 60" x 48"




A Nymph Came Pirouetting, 2009, oil on canvas, 48" x 24"

Julie Heffernan at Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica & April Gornik at The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY

I hate it when I find out about an exhibition just after it closes. That is the case with both Julie Heffernan's exhibition at Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica & April Gornik's at The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY. Even more so since I am a long time fan of Julie Heffernan's art and a great admirer of the work of April Gornik.

Despite the exhibitions closing a short time ago, I've decided to still post them up here, so follow the links to find out more about these two wonderful artists.



Julie Heffernan at Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica

JULIE HEFFERNAN: WHAT HOLDS UP: MAY 23 - JULY 3, 2009

To visit Mark Moore Gallery Click Here



Self Portrait with Albatross, 2008, oil on canvas, 72 X 54 inches

(Press release courtesy Mark Moore Gallery)

Mark Moore Gallery is pleased to announce new paintings from acclaimed artist Julie Heffernan. Heffernan's theatrical and opulent canvases are a hybrid of genres, encompassing portraiture, surrealism and still life, amongst others; yet their Old Master quality goes beyond simple irony or quotation. The initial impact of Heffernan's "self-portraits" recedes to allow the artist's skill in her technique and the allure of the paintings' beauty to emerge and entrance the viewer. Her works act as unexplained allegories of the imagination and indulgent guilty pleasures. Although Heffernan has refined the same subject matter for the better part of 15 years, her works feel particularly poignant today; their slightly ominous tone acting to forewarn, the sumptuous canvases both a talisman and a critique of brazen conspicuous consumption.



Self Portrait as Roots, 2009, oil on canvas, 72 X 56 inches




Study for Self Portrait as Booty , 2009, oil on canvas, 28 x 22 inches


The catalogue published to coincide with Julie Heffernan's solo exhibition at the Mark Moore Gallery, "What Holds Up" is available from BLURB Click Here




April Gornik at The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY

The Luminous Landscapes of April Gornik ; May 2, 2009 - July 5, 2009

To read the New York Times review of April Gornik's exhibition Click Here

To visit the The Heckscher Museum of Art Click Here


Dune Sky, 2007, Oil on linen, 70" x 81"


(Courtesy of the The Heckscher Museum of Art's website)

A resident of Suffolk County, Long Island, April Gornik can be firmly situated in the distinguished American landscape tradition. Devoid of people, her paintings portray the majesty and allure of nature but in a carefully composed manner that draws on diverse sources of inspiration, including photographs. The result is surreal, transcendental and sublime. Light plays a powerful role in her paintings, creating a sense of mystery, whether it is sunlight or moonlight. In a statement about her work, she says that she likes her work to be intuitive, open to interpretation and beautiful. This exhibition will feature approximately thirteen of her large-scale paintings.



Mirror Lake, China, 2004, Oil on Linen, 78" x 104"




Fresh Light, 1987, Oil on linen, 74" x 96"

Tjalf Sparnaay, until August, Plus One Gallery, London

Tjalf Sparnaay's exhibition is now on at Plus One Gallery London, celebrating the beauty of the commonplace. Tjalf takes trivial items such as traditionally served fish and chips or the vibrant, almost kitsch presentation of an ice cream sundae and enlarges them to a monumental size to remove the contact of their surroundings.

To visit Plus One Gallery Click Here



Fried Egg, Double, 2009, oil on canvas, 90 x 110 cm



Pastry, 2008, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm



Fish and Chips, 2009, oil on canvas, 110 x 175 cm



Boiled Egg, 2009, oil on canvas, 90 x 80 cm



Sorbet, 2009, oil on canvas, 150 x 100 cm

J.W. Waterhouse Retrospective, until 13 September, Royal Academy of Arts, London

J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite

The Royal Academy of Arts presents a major retrospective exhibition of the Pre-Raphaelite artist, John William Waterhouse RA (1849-1917). The exhibition, which will feature over 40 paintings from both public and private collections and will be accompanied by studies in oil, chalk and pencil; period photographs; sketchbooks; and the volumes of Tennyson and Shelley in which Waterhouse drew sketches.

To go to the The Royal Academy of Arts website Click Here



The Lady of Shalott, 1888




Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses, 1891. Oil on canvas, 149 x 92 cm




Hylas and the Nymphs, 1896




Circe Invidiosa: Circe Poisoning the Sea, 1892 (The Art Gallery of South Australia)




A Mermaid, 1900


The catalogue (237 pages with 180 illustrations, measuring 29.5 x 24.5cms) that accompanies the exhibition can be purchased from the Royal Adademy of Arts Shop Click Here

Lisa Adams, until July 18, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane

Queensland artist Lisa Adams has gained a strong following for her carefully realised paintings and her current exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries is a must visit for those who are in Brisbane, or can travel there.

For more information on Lisa's exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries CLICK HERE



Rose garden, 2008, oil on canvas, 70 x 53.5 cm collection Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art



In The Real Art World interviews Lisa Adams about her recent exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane


In The real Art World: What is the Lisa Adams story, how have you and your art arrived at this point?

Lisa Adams: I live and work on a 15 acre native bush property in the Sunshine Coast hinterland with my husband, fellow artist Kim Guthrie.
My earliest work was comprised of many drawings which graphically depict spooky dolls and playthings that evoke the uncanny world of childhood. I am largely self taught and began to teach myself to paint at age 19. The dolls disappeared from my work but crucial elements from this period have remained. I have now been painting for 20 years and have been represented by Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane since 1999.



Drift, 2008, oil on canvas, 33 x 61 cm


In The real Art World: How do you go about finding the subjects for your paintings and what do you really look for when assessing it’s potential to make it as a painting?

Lisa Adams: Ideas present themselves to me vividly. I see the finished painting clearly in my mind, and it is this image that I endeavor to represent. I am drawn to ideas which give me an intense gut feeling the moment they are conceived. I must feel this strongly about an idea before pursuing it as a painting as it means committing a large amount of time, bringing that idea to fruition. I try to remain faithful to the original idea without tinkering with it or questioning it too much, as the initial concept is very often the most powerful. I can never pinpoint how or when I will get an idea.



Secret, 2006, oil on canvas, 54 x 78 cm


In The real Art World: There is a disconcerting tension to viewing your paintings, as we become like witnesses to an unresolved story. How important is creating a balanced enigmatic state where the paintings lead the viewer into wanting to understand the image without giving them many clues?

Lisa Adams: It is not my intention to lead the viewer towards anywhere in particular. My paintings are often inexplicable suspended moments which I often don't have all the answers to myself but which I know somehow are an emotional response to my life's experiences.



Lovers, 2006, oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm


In The real Art World: Creating ambiguous images such as “Lovers, 2007” makes for all sorts of associations. For me, I cannot look at that painting without thinking of Dave Graney’s song “Scorched earth love affair”, about a couple that were “bad for each other”. Does it surprise you what people tell you they see in your paintings?

Lisa Adams: I am happy for people to form their own ideas about the meaning of my paintings, everyone filters art through their own history. What people tell me they see in my paintings often tells me a a lot about them. For me 'Lovers' 2007 was about the incredible intensity of passion felt when you first fall in love.


In The real Art World: The scenes in your paintings range from the plausible “Secret, 2006”, the highly implausible such as an anchor floating on the sea in “Drift 2008”, to some paintings that border on the Surreal. How do you see your art and do terms like Surreal distract away from dealing with unsettling imagery?

Lisa Adams: Surrealism was dealing with the workings of the subconscious. My work is an honest attempt at understanding and communicating my reality. Often quirky imagery is used as a veiled attempt at discussing more serious subject matter.



Secret, 2009, oil on canvas, 81 x 62 cm


In The real Art World: Tell me about your working process, how an idea becomes a finished painting.

Lisa Adams: My work relies heavily on detailed photographic reference from which I paint. I prefer to use my own photographs when possible. When it proves difficult or impossible for me to access and photograph a subject I then need to hunt out reference, which can often be time consuming and frustrating. I spend days trawling through libraries, bookshops and internet photo stock libraries trying to find the reference which will enable me to truthfully represent my idea. I never paint from just one photograph. It sometimes takes hundreds of separate sources of reference to piece together a painting. Many of the female figures posed throughout my work rowing, chiseling, climbing, are all the outcome of my own studio enactments, recorded by my husband in preparatory photographs. Though I frequently return to the self portrait, elements from the natural world, often recognizably Australian, also appear. Animals, birds, landscape, dust, fog appear both as a backdrop for the narrative and as the subject itself. I work on a small scale due to the exacting nature of my paintings, working with paintbrushes rated 000 and smaller. I am compelled to overpaint an image 2 or 3 times. It is this large amount of time spent layering and refining detail which I feel can sometimes imbue a painting with a magical quality. I apply a strict work ethic, clocking on in my studio daily around 8am and working steadily until mid afternoon.



Twister, 2009, oil on canvas, 62 x 88 cm


In The real Art World: Who are the artists that at the moment you are looking at, or find their work resonates for you?

Lisa Adams: I am drawn to work which relies on the landscape or seascape to create or enhance the mood of the painting. Internationally, the existential melancholy of a landscape by Caspar David Friedrich, or the dramatic forboding of a seascape by Winslow Homer. In Australia, Sidney Nolan, Lloyd Rees, Fred Williams, John Brack, Gareth Sansom, Rick Amor, Louise Hearman, and many many more.



Divining, 2007, oil on canvas, 60 x 95 cm


In The real Art World: I'm always curious of which colours make up the palette used by the artist, can you list them for me.

Lisa Adams: Some regulars are: naples yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, spectrum vermilion, cadmium red, cadmium orange, sap green, olive green, pthalo green, permanent mauve, burnt umber, vandyke brown, titanium white, ivory black, indigo blue, tasman bluesst


In The real Art World: Finally, what's next?

Lisa Adams: After my current exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, I hope to make a trip into the Australian outback to gather reference for future paintings. I am looking forward to being back in my studio again, working toward my next exhibition.

Jeremy Mann, until July 4, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco

Jeremy Mann, a 30 year old artist from San Francisco is having his first solo exhibition at John Pence Gallery and it's well worth a visit.

For more information Click Here


Morning, San Francisco, Oil on Panel, 36 x 48 inches, 2009




Laguna Street at Night, Oil on Panel, 18 x 18 inches, 2009




Il Mio Gatto Ama Pesce, Oil on Panel, 20 x 22 inches, 2009




Downtown in Green, Oil on Panel, 11 x 14 inches, 2009




Pigeon, Oil on Panel, 30 x 30 inches, 2009

Eric Fischl, until July 15, Jablonka Gallery, Berlin

Eric Fischl: Corrida Paintings
Eric Fischl's current exhibition in Berlin deals with the centuries old tradition of the bull fight. Eric's paintings focus on the "Corrida Goyesca de Rondo", a type of bull fight in the Andalusian city of Rondo close to Malaga. Once a year the Corrida Goyesca takes place there, employing the traditional colourful clothing, decoration and trapping of the style and era of Goya.

For more information Click Here



Corrida in Ronda No. 5, 2008, Oil on linen, 132 x 152 cm (52 x 60 in.)




Corrida in Ronda No. 4, 2008, Oil on linen, 198 x 305 cm (78 x 120 in.)




Corrida in Ronda No. 2, 2008, Oil on linen, 213 x 305 cm (84 x 120 in.)